Scores always involve a tradeoff on space and at times there is not enough so you have to make due and just adjust things so they do not collide.īoth Finale and Sibelius will set up a newly created score in such a way that the staves fit on whatever page you select, so you don’t have to worry about that at all, unless you want to refine it a bit.īefore dealing with numbers it is worth noting that in Finale there are three elements that all be reduced, either using one or in combination to achieve the final look. With landscape orientation scores, there is less vertical space so reduction is more important to allow for sufficient space between the staves. I would start looking at Landscape somewhere between 6 to 10 staves per system and up to standard jazz ensemble size, between 20 and 25 staves. Traditionally landscape orientation is used in Jazz Ensemble and Marching Band scores, but since neither Finale or Sibelius default to landscape when creating a new score, a lot of writers not accustomed to the traditional layout just use portrait orientation as set up by the software. VL: I use landscape orientation for smaller instrumentation where the system looks to spread out vertically in portrait orientation but there is insufficient space for two systems to fit on a page. TR: When do you use Landscape for Scores? How many staves? What staff/page reduction? In Sibelius, in the Layout tab, you can reduce the space between systems to fit more systems on the page. Enter the desired number of systems per page. In Finale, to put a specific number of systems per page, choose the Page Layout Tool and from the Page Layout menu, select Space Systems Evenly. I want to fit as many systems as I can on that score page so I’m not constantly turning pages. With scores, the music is smaller compared to an individual part even though both pages may be letter sized. One of the things I learned from Bill was to maximize the available space on each page. So when I started using computers, I copied the engraving model I knew from my past experience.Įven in small scores, as you can see from the quartet and quintet examples in our Finale and Sibelius books, involve reduction. They used music typewriters for engraving, which had a fixed staff size so everything had some degree of reduction to it. My first job was working for Bill Holcombe at his music publishing and engraving business, Musicians Publications back in the 1970s. VL: Everything I create in Finale and Sibelius is reduced to some degree. TR: When do you start to reduce the size of the page? How many parts in a score? In Sibelius, to reduce the staff size, choose Layout > Document Setup and reduce the staff size. In Finale, to reduce the staff size, choose the Page Layout Tool and from the Page Window, choose Resize Page (Page Reduction). I now have a printer that allows me to print on 9.5 by 12.5 paper, but I still use the individual Staff reduction. That’s enough to make a crowed system look a little less cluttered. At 100% it looks a little large, so I reduce the staff 90%. I also reduce the staves a little as well. So, I made my computer part page 88% when printing on letter size paper. Thanks to zoom reduction copiers, I knew the letter size page size was 88% smaller than my manuscript paper. At the time I could only print on letter size paper so I had to shrink the dimensions from my 9.5 by 12.5 manuscript paper. When I first started with Finale 1.0 back in the late 1980s, I measured the manuscript paper I’d been using when copying parts by hand and reproduced those dimensions in Finale. TR: Do you have a set size in Finale and/or Sibelius for individual parts? ![]() The topic of this post is how to determine the page size for scores and parts in Finale and Sibelius. ![]() In this post, I interviewed my co-author, friend, and mentor, Vince Leonard.
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