Hi List,
So, I'm in the process of transcribing some masses from part-books, and I'm trying to figure out the best way to set up the file/variable/include structure so that I have a minimum of clutter.
There are six masses, with two brass (alternating between trumpet, horn, and tacet), tympani, two violins, cello (which is just a double of basso continuo, confusing me as to exactly how many celli there actually should be), SATB voice parts (solo and tutti/chorus passages), and an organ doubling basso continuo.
What I'd been doing previously is have each movement of the mass in its own file, containing the following rough structure:
each instrument is a block at the top, formatted thus:
ClarinoOneMusic = \new Voice \relative c'' {
some notes
}
then a silent voice added to the top staff for tempo/meter changes, special barlines, etc, like this:
systembreaks = \new Voice {
\tempo \markup {\sans \medium \fontsize #4 "Adagio" }
s2.*6 \break
s2.*6 \bar "||" \break %% End of Adagio, Bar 12
\time 2/4
\tempo \markup {\sans \medium \fontsize #4 "Andantè"}
s2*72 \once \override Score.RehearsalMark.break-visibility = #begin-of-line-invisible
\mark \markup { \musicglyph #"scripts.ufermata" } \bar "||" \break %% End first part
then a big \score block putting all the Voice variables together, starting like this:
\score {
<<
\new StaffGroup = "StaffGroup_banda" <<
\new Staff = "Staff_ClarinoOne" <<
\override Staff.InstrumentName.self-alignment-X = #LEFT
\set Staff.instrumentName = \markup \left-column { \abs-fontsize #10 \line {Corno I ex F } \line {\italic {ad lib. } } }
\global \ClarinoOneMusic \systembreaks
>>
\new Staff = "Staff_ClarinoTwo" {
%% [SNIP] etc etc.
\layout {
\context {
\Staff \RemoveEmptyStaves
}
}
\midi {}
\header {
piece = \markup { \abs-fontsize #18 \left-align { Kyrie } }
}
}
This is in each of five files that are \included in a master file specifying title, composer, etc, and setting them in order. My problem is now this: having reached a mass with transposing instruments, I realize that I want the two transposing Voices to be in concert pitch in the score, but transposed in the parts (and I'm reading from transposed part-books). Questions:
do I enter the transposing instruments into the score in concert pitch or transposed? Can Frescobaldi (my editor of choice) take an entire Voice and transpose it into concert pitch after I've edited, or should I enter the content in concert pitch (transposing back into C on the fly as I type)?
Is there a better way to structure the files? How do I extract the instrument variables into separate part files? Can I just \include all the separate movement files, and then add the Voice variables in sequence? In other words: each movement is a separate file, but in each file the instruments have the same name for their variable. How do I set up part files so that each part has all the movements, from all the masses, in order and correctly transposed and everything?
This gets back to what I was asking the thread about a few months ago: what is the "best practice" (good heavens I hate that term; corporate management-babble totally ruined what is otherwise a perfectly defensible concept) for putting together a work such as this, with multiple individual pieces, each in multiple movements, for an ensemble of nontrivial size? If each instrument (11 total), in each movement (five in a normal mass, right?), in each mass (six total) is a separate file, I'm looking at a file structure of over 300 individual files. That seems … excessive.
Thanks for the advice.
A