What do I, as a conductor, want from your score? or: how to make conductors like you.
Hey, just a heads-up: this was originally posted on my old website in 2018. I’m moving all my old blog posts to this fancy new site!
Hello world!
Soon (May 2018) I'll be conducting several world premieres during the Atmospheres Festival in Cardiff, including my own Piano Concerto. This of course means I'm currently preparing the scores for rehearsals, and dealing with the various approaches to notation has made me consider just what I expect from a score. So, as I believe such things may be helpful to the inexperienced composer, I'd like to share my thoughts.
I would remind you that this post is about what I want; as with all things, some people will have different opinions. However, I can guarantee that if you follow these guidelines you will make your conductor's life a whole lot easier and they will thank you for it.
So firstly let's look at everything non-musical:
Portrait - landscape is too wide when opened, falls off the music stand. Always present scores in portrait.
Appropriate size - A4 for chamber ensembles, A3 for orchestral. Staff size should be 5mm+ - 4mm at absolute minimum! If you’re unsure, put the score on a table and step back. If you can’t read it like that, I can’t read it on the podium.
Bound - loose sheets get lost/damaged/mixed up. Generally spiral/wire/comb bind; NEVER staple in the corner! Score must lie flat. Also, it should go without saying but pages must be double-sided.
Title pages - outer pages of a score will get damaged. At minimum, a single title page, with full instrumentation/requirements/performance notes on reverse, music starts on page 3. If music ends on a LH page, add a blank page to back of score to protect it as well.
Recommended front matter:
(opt.) Card cover w/ title, composer, instrumentation (short e.g. “for orchestra”), full/vocal score, year of composition, dedication. Blank on reverse.
Title page w/ title, composer, instrumentation (as above), full/vocal score, DATE (use \$dateshort\ in Sibelius to automatically add the date - this becomes invaluable if you make changes and end up with multiple, almost-identical copies of the same score), dedication. Reverse of title page - Copyright notice, contact info, first performance info
Full instrumentation (inc. all doublings, brass mutes, percussion requirements), duration, programme note, performance notes, any other requirements (electronics etc.), ensemble layout (if applicable), contents (if multi-movement). There’s no fixed order for all this information to appear, so long as it’s clear. Personally I usually put instrumentation, duration and programme note on page 3, and performance notes on page 4, but this changes from project to project (e.g. an opera needs another page for a synopsis).
Music starts on a RH page (usually page 5)
(opt.) plain card back cover
Check out either of these examples if you'd like: orchestral / opera
Your front matter is where you answer every question I might have about the piece. Using electronics? Describe how they’ll sound. Invented a fancy new notation? Explain it fully. Orchestra need specific props for a theatrical effect? List them all, including who gets what.
The first page of music - include the title, dedication, short instrumentation, composer, lyricist, transposing pitch (see below) at the top. Copyright notice goes at the bottom of the first page only. Restart page numbering here, even though the number should be hidden (so the first visible page number is 2, on the next page) (if you have a lot of pages before the music you may use roman numerals to number them, but in most cases leaving them all unnumbered is fine).
On all subsequent pages, put the title, date and composer at the bottom-left corner. Of course you should only be giving me bound scores, but if I get given a lot of unbound scores with the same instrumentation and similar house-styles and they get mixed up in my bag, I don’t want to spend half an hour guessing which page belongs to which score.
Regarding the music:
Transposing pitch - I want to see exactly what the player sees. Confirm the score is in transposing pitch in the top-left of the first page of music.
A brief point: I highly recommend writing in transposing pitch as opposed to concert pitch. This eliminates the potential for mistakes when making parts later on (e.g. forgetting to transpose, poor clef choices etc.). It’s also good for your sight-transposing, which is a useful skill for any musician.
Large time signatures - in a full orchestral score, they MUST be through the staves, one each for winds, brass, percussion, and strings. For an A4 score, either through the staves or above them. Whatever style, they must be unmissable - put your score down on a table, take a step back, focus completely on the second clarinet part, and try to conduct it. If you miss any time signature changes, they aren’t obvious enough.
Related are beat divisions. I add them as tempo marks in Sibelius as this ensures they’re visible on all parts. Clarify if your 7/8 bar is 2.2.3, 2.3.2 or 3.2.2 - especially if the beat pattern changes often! Too many such clarifications is far better than too few.
Keep all beat divisions clear and the same in each instrument. If all the winds are beamed 2.2.3, the brass 2.3.2, and the strings 3.2.2, there are going to be problems. Pick the most important/contextually-logical one, and use accents if you must to achieve the different phrasing.
Large, readable text - if your tempo changes are 9pt and only above the flutes, I’m not going to see them! Make them a decent size (12pt minimum, 15pt is very comfortable for an A3 score) and put them above the strings as well. In a very large score they should also go above brass and percussion (or keyboard instruments/harps), but I find this generally unnecessary. Use your head.
Rehearsal marks and bar numbers - as above, make sure I can read them! In most cases rehearsal marks should be boxed bar numbers (remember to hide bar numbers at the start of systems when there is a rehearsal mark - in Sibelius this is under Engraving Rules > Bar Numbers > Hide at rehearsal marks) as this is more coherent and predictable (and thus easier for players to find). In a multi-movement piece, restart bar numbering with each movement - sometimes bar numbers as rehearsal marks will be fine in this situation, but if it’s unclear (many movements, or a long piece) you should consider using sequential numbers (preferable) or letters (acceptable) that DO NOT reset at new movements.
Personally I much prefer sequential numbers in a very long score (calling out “seventy-three” is nicer than “seven-hundred and twenty-eight”, or “UUU”.
Use lots of rehearsal marks! Not only does it speed up rehearsing, they are waypoints that allow any lost musicians to recover (e.g. after losing count during a lot of rests). As a rule of thumb, I recommend rehearsal marks every 7-16 bars, at musically-significant points (changes in texture, dynamic peaks etc.)
Bar 1 doesn’t need a rehearsal mark.
Staves - the first page should have every stave, even if most are empty (an exception: in an opera, omit characters until they appear). After this it gets a little more complicated. Some conductors prefer to hide all empty staves as this saves space and ink, however I find this causes more problems than it solves. So, here is my recommendation:
As a rule, keep all staves visible
If an entire instrument family is tacet for a page, hide them all - but ONLY if doing so will allow additional systems on the page. If you hide the winds and percussion for a page but either side of the piece is tutti, you’ll end up with just a badly-spaced single page with far too much white space.
A simple way to think about it: keeping instrument families intact > doubling up systems to save paper > keeping instruments at the same vertical position > saving ink.
Staff sharing - this comes down to a case-by-case basis. As a rule:
Double woodwinds - individual staves
Triple woodwinds - 1+2 share a staff where possible (e.g. if empty or homophonic), 3 has own staff (easier for doublings). 1 and 2 may have own staves if the music is complex
Brass - generally, Horns 1+2, 3+4, Trumpets 1+2, 3, Trombones 1+2, Bass Trombone, Tuba. If the music is complex, use individual staves briefly (and if the score is very crowded e.g. with multiple string divisi, a single staff each for horns and trumpets may be necessary)
I achieve swapping between shared and individual staves in Sibelius by writing first into individual staves, then creating a shared one, reducing all the material onto it, and manually hiding the unwanted staves when I’m engraving. It takes more time, but it improves the score noticeably
Remember all wind and brass players need their own individual part. Horns 1+2 can share a staff throughout in the full score, but you’ll need to make individual Horn 1 and Horn 2 parts for the players.
String divisi - simple divisi (homophonic, two pitches) can share a staff, anything more complex should have separate staves. Achieve this by adding a staff below in the Add or Remove Instruments dialogue box and hiding the empty staves when they aren’t needed. A tip: under Edit Instruments, create a new one called Violins div. (or whichever instrument), and use the Change Instruments tool whenever you use divisi violins. It isn’t strictly necessary, but it does improve the aesthetic of your score.
I believe this score is very clear, and uses the above staff-sharing guidelines.
Additional things to consider:
This goes without saying, but make sure your parts are correct! Triple-check them, then get someone else to help with fresh eyes. Some things to watch out for:
Dynamics or symbols that have been accidentally applied to the wrong note/instrument
Unintended hidden multirests during aleatoric passages
Impractical page turns
Cues! Use cues abundantly. More than 8 bars rest? A short cue from a useful instrument (i.e. loud or neighbouring) is reassuring. Split up extended empty passages with several short cues (rehearsal marks are good places for these).
Correct transpositions (if you write in transposing score this shouldn’t be a problem)
Indicate which instrument a wind doubler starts on
Even if you follow all of these guidelines, a conductor will still want to mark up your score. Please don’t give us a score 15 minutes before the first rehearsal; allow plenty of time. At the very least, a pdf well in advance gives us a chance to make a note of problematic sections to watch out for.
If you’re organising the rehearsal, make sure the conductor has a high stool and suitable music stand (A3 scores will need a larger stand to lie flat).
Clarity, clarity, clarity! If I’m standing in front of an orchestra in a rehearsal, 30 seconds spent working out what you meant by an unclear notation feels a lot longer - and it costs money. Clear score = more time to make your piece sound great.
Don’t be afraid to make changes during a rehearsal. Just because the score is printed on paper doesn’t make it sacred. All good players will have a pencil with them and are perfectly happy with marking in small adjustments. If that oboe trill doesn’t work as well as you intended, ask the player if there’s an alternative. Cut unnecessary bars. Try a different brass mute. Put passages up/down an octave. Use your rehearsal to continue composing. All those example adjustments are things I have done myself as composer, by the way.
Give conducting a go yourself! The easiest way to find all the problems in your score a conductor will encounter is to put yourself in that position. At the very least, come to your rehearsals. Many notation ideas might be great as abstract concepts, but in practice they can cause significant problems where a less-philosophical notation could be infinitely more pragmatic.
I hope you find these guidelines helpful. Any questions or suggestions? Leave them in the comments below.
