"Broadway Style": always 4 measures per staff?

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HaraldS
Posts: 15
Joined: 12 Apr 2016, 14:21
Location: Germany

"Broadway Style": always 4 measures per staff?

Post by HaraldS »

Hello,

when playing in musical shows here in Germany, we usually get the sheet music from the US or UK publisher, which means that the music is written with 4 measures per staff. I vaguely remember that someone called that the "Broadway layout", maybe it was in one of the equally meaningful and entertaining Express music articles ?

It's quite obvious that changes could be done easily if there are so few measures in a line, and 4-bar-structures are easily recognized, but on the other hand, e.g. as a keyboard player, you toss around piles of paper. So my question to the big apple chaps: as revisions in today's times are mostly always done in the software, is there any reason to stick to the 4-measure-per-staff rule? More and more show music doesn't have the traditional 4-bar-structures anyway. Are Broadway copyists requested to stick to that format due to historical reasons? Thanks for enlighting me.

Harald
Finale 3.0-2014.5, german edition, Windows 7
hardware synths/keys, Cubase 7 / trombonist, pianist, conductor / Recklinghausen, Germany
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John Ruggero
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Joined: 05 Oct 2015, 14:25
Location: Raleigh, NC USA

Re: "Broadway Style": always 4 measures per staff?

Post by John Ruggero »

What an interesting question. If this is still the rule, it may have to do with Local 802 copying rates. Fred G. Unn might know.
M1 Mac mini (OS 12.4), Dorico, Finale 25.5, GPO 4, Affinity Publisher 2, SmartScore 64 Pro, JW Plug-ins, TG Tools, Keyboard maestro

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MJCube
Posts: 130
Joined: 15 Dec 2015, 13:32
Location: NYC

Re: "Broadway Style": always 4 measures per staff?

Post by MJCube »

I’m not currently doing any work in this area but the last time I did (10 years ago) the 4-bars-per-line rule was indeed being relaxed, at least by some. I would think with today’s technology it’s rarely necessary to pencil in changes any more.
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