The very first pages of an orchestral score

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harpsi
Posts: 30
Joined: 08 Oct 2015, 10:30

The very first pages of an orchestral score

Post by harpsi »

I am laying out an orchestral score and have a few questions, hopefully easily answered!

Where does the instrumentation list go and are there any specific rules as to how this is presented?
Should the music start on a left or a right page? Or can it start on either?

As for now, I have done it like this:

Title page
Empty | Instrumentation list
Empty | Title mvt 1
Empty | Music starts

Is that preferable to this:

Title page
Instr list | Title mvt 1
Music first page|music second page

Any suggestions or opinions welcome.
erelievonen
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Re: The very first pages of an orchestral score

Post by erelievonen »

Different publishers have different house styles – but I would likely do it as in your second example.
Harpsichordmaker
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Re: The very first pages of an orchestral score

Post by Harpsichordmaker »

The "rule" in classical (text) typography is everything starts on the right (odd-numbered) page, so your first example is preferable.
Of course, page turning issues may dictate differently, and indeed the music starts on the left page more often than not.

As for orchestra full score, where the page turning is not an issue, I see both left and right pages in various editions. I prefer the music starting on the left page, but the text matter should follow the text typography principles.

There are texts which can go on the left, of course. For example:
- the mention of the fund granter (if any)
- the address of the foundation or organization which has edited the volume (usually in esrpy music publication, a research center edits the volume which is after printed and published by a publishing house)
- the series frontispice, as opposed to the volume frontispice which goes on the right: "Neue Bach Ausgabe" frontispice goes on the left, "Passio secundum Matthaeum" goes on the right (along with the editor's name, the seies/volume number and so on).

Of course, one should be not too rigid about such things.
benwiggy
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Re: The very first pages of an orchestral score

Post by benwiggy »

Titlepages and "starts" are traditionally on the right, not just in music, but in "general" book production -- even before the advent of the printing press. I'm guessing that's because it's the first page you see as you turn the page, though there may be other reasons.

The advantage of starting the music on a left hand page is obviously to get the width of a spread before you need to turn the page. I would suggest that the larger the work, the greater the necessity for more "formal" presentation. You can get away with minimizing the empty pages if it's only a few pages.
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OCTO
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Re: The very first pages of an orchestral score

Post by OCTO »

Or simple:
1 Title
2 Instrumentation
3 (1) Music
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harpsi
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Joined: 08 Oct 2015, 10:30

Re: The very first pages of an orchestral score

Post by harpsi »

Thank you all, good to think about this from different perspectives.
As the piece is around 110 pages long, I think I will go for the more formal look using blank pages in the beginning. Maybe like my first example but with music already from page 5, I will see. If I start on page 6 instead, the movement will end on an even page as well which might be preferable. Then I can turn page and have the title for movement 2 on the next right page and then start movement two on the left page directly after that. Somehow, I am less disturbed by the second movement starting on a left page than the first.

A propos the titles - the composer want them on a separate page, because there is a short programmatic text to go with the title.
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