Reducing music onto fewer staves

Dorico Pro Help

Product
Dorico Pro
Version
5.1
Language
English
Document type
Webhelp
ft:openMode
fluidtopics

You can reduce music onto fewer staves than it was originally notated across; for example, to create a piano reduction of a choral piece.

Prerequisite

You have chosen the appropriate voicing approach on the Paste Special page in Note Input Options.

Procedure

  1. In Write mode, select the music you want to reduce.
    Tip

    We recommend reducing sections in rhythmic unison separately from sections with different rhythms.

  2. Press Ctrl/Cmd-C to copy the music.
  3. Select the staves onto which you want to reduce the selected music.
  4. Choose Edit > Paste Special > Reduce. You can also choose this option from the context menu.

Result

The selected music is reduced onto the selected staves.

If the rhythms match throughout the selection, Dorico Pro merges the music into a single voice by default. Unison notes are removed so that only a single note of the same pitch is pasted at a single rhythmic position, and clef changes, octave lines, and cues are also deleted. If the rhythms are different at any point in the selection, Dorico Pro uses as many voices as needed to preserve the rhythms.

Each destination staff receives the music of at least one instrument, and the division of the music to be reduced is calculated from the top selected staff downwards. For example, if you copy material from five instruments and reduce it to three, the top selected staff is assigned the music from the first and second instruments, the second selected staff is assigned music from the third and fourth instruments, and the third selected staff is assigned music from the fifth instrument.