CJ Replay: Studying the Orchestral Score

(From the Choral Journal article, “A Choral Conductor’s Preparation for Choral/Orchestral Concerts,” by Kerry Barnett)

 

       Orchestral scores can be confusing to choral conductors, many of whom are primarily used to looking at only choral parts, perhaps with some form of keyboard accompaniment. The process of becoming comfortable with the visual presentation of orchestral scores is difficult, due to the tremendous variety in the way various components are laid out on the page. Therefore,  conductors simply must spend significant amounts of time studying a variety of scores. Fortunately, there is a standard layout for placement of the orchestral staves on the page – alayout which has become fairly consistent in music of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In this format the woodwinds are placed at the top of the page, followed by the brasses, percussion, and solo instruments or chorus. The strings are usually positioned at the bottom of the page. Within these four categories, the instruments are generally grouped in descendingorder from the highest sounding to the lowest. Brass instruments are an exception; the horns are at the top of the page because of their frequent consideration as woodwind instruments.

       Scores stemming from the Baroque and Classical eras follow no set pattern as to instrument placement, and must be learned on an individual basis. It also should be noted that while all the instruments called for in a piece are usually shown on the first page, on later pages where the texture becomes thinner, publishers commonly eliminate staves so that only those instruments playing on that page, or shortly after, are represented.   Read More . . .