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Classical concerto for double bass in MuseScore

Posted: 19 Sep 2018, 09:59
by bicinium
Hi notatio,

I've been lurking here for some time, but now I feel ready to talk about an engraving that I've been working on for the past year...

The piece in question is a work for double bass and orchestra by Domenico Dragonetti from the early 19th century. I made the score and parts freely available on IMSLP:
https://imslp.org/wiki/Double_Bass_Conc ... _Domenico)

My project was inspired by this video of the modern world premiere of the piece. The edition advertised in the video never happened, so I took matters into my own hands and ordered digital scans of the British Library manuscripts, from which I then created the engraving. I tried to stay true to the sources (which are several and sometimes contradictory) but also produce a high-quality engraving, with good page turns and spacing, and where the parts do not have errors or are missing crucial information. I have no background in music engraving (I mainly just looked at old Breitkopf scores) so I would be very interested to hear your comments. Personally, I think it's serviceable at the very least, and I hope some bassists will give it a try with their community/school orchestras.

Here is an interactive score where you can follow along with the video:
https://musescore.com/user/352976/scores/4888584

Kind regards,
Tom

Re: Classical concerto for double bass in MuseScore

Posted: 21 Sep 2018, 03:44
by Schonbergian
Some very nice work for a beginner. Some thoughts:

I would suggest you steer well clear of TNR for music engraving. Try New Century Schoolbook for a drop-in replacement that harmonizes much better with the style of your pages.

I would make the overall line weight heavier if this is going to be printed on letter-size paper or below.

You may want to space out the staves on the first page more so that the system fills the page. Same for any "Frenched" systems.

Re: Classical concerto for double bass in MuseScore

Posted: 22 Sep 2018, 06:51
by bicinium
Schonbergian wrote: 21 Sep 2018, 03:44 Some very nice work for a beginner.
Thank you, that's good to hear...
Schonbergian wrote: 21 Sep 2018, 03:44 I would suggest you steer well clear of TNR for music engraving. Try New Century Schoolbook for a drop-in replacement that harmonizes much better with the style of your pages.
That's not Times New Roman, it's FreeSerif, the default font for text in MuseScore. I've used different fonts in the past, but now I want the guarantee that the score opens properly on any system (and I will only use fonts with a free software/free culture license). What is wrong with it specifically?
Schonbergian wrote: 21 Sep 2018, 03:44I would make the overall line weight heavier if this is going to be printed on letter-size paper or below.
I imagine the score would be printed on A3 paper and the parts on A4. I hadn't thought about increasing the line thickness to compensate for smaller systems. MuseScore has separate settings for every kind of element, which is intimidating...
Schonbergian wrote: 21 Sep 2018, 03:44You may want to space out the staves on the first page more so that the system fills the page. Same for any "Frenched" systems.
Also a good idea that I hadn't thought. What are Frenched systems, though?

Re: Classical concerto for double bass in MuseScore

Posted: 22 Sep 2018, 19:36
by liuscorne
bicinium wrote: 22 Sep 2018, 06:51 That's not Times New Roman, it's FreeSerif, the default font for text in MuseScore. I've used different fonts in the past, but now I want the guarantee that the score opens properly on any system (and I will only use fonts with a free software/free culture license). What is wrong with it specifically?
Free Serif is just another name for TNR.
There is nothing wrong with TNR per se. It's just that music engraving is steeped in 19th-century typography. And even though TNR is also based on that tradition, stylistically it is quite different and therefore doesn't fit in nicely with a more traditionally-looking score.
If you're looking for fonts with a open font licence, maybe the fontsquirrel can help, for example:

https://www.fontsquirrel.com/fonts/besley
https://www.fontsquirrel.com/fonts/munson

Re: Classical concerto for double bass in MuseScore

Posted: 23 Sep 2018, 05:08
by Schonbergian
TNR has way too much contrast and is often unreadable at the smaller sizes that sheet music often requires. In addition, it does not harmonize at all with the style of your page.

Re: Classical concerto for double bass in MuseScore

Posted: 24 Sep 2018, 06:58
by bicinium
OK, thank you for the explanation and for the font suggestions.

There is just one more issue that I would really appreciate getting comments on. In the parts, I added cue notes, but the way I did it seems distracting. Please have a look at one of the oboe parts, for example.

Re: Classical concerto for double bass in MuseScore

Posted: 24 Sep 2018, 13:58
by Schonbergian
I can't seem to view the parts without a MuseScore subscription. Could you possibly upload the part in question here or on a free hosting service?

Re: Classical concerto for double bass in MuseScore

Posted: 24 Sep 2018, 14:10
by liuscorne
You can follow the imslp link. All parts are available there too.

Re: Classical concerto for double bass in MuseScore

Posted: 24 Sep 2018, 15:57
by bicinium
Yes, I meant on IMSLP. The parts that you can get from musescore.com are just automatically extracted from the score.

Re: Classical concerto for double bass in MuseScore

Posted: 25 Sep 2018, 13:27
by harpsi
Nicely done, everything is very clear. Anyway, some feedback and humble suggestions to improvements for the Oboe 1 part.

Maybe you could even consider fitting this music into three pages - right now the last page feels a bit empty.