Templates 101: The Score

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If this blog is about doing less and having more time for making music, cultivating a habit of creating and maintaining a template can streamline the process of setting up each score. It's about consistently approaching tasks in the same manner every time you start or finish a project, thus only needing to do them once.

Ye Olden Days

When I began orchestrating and engraving, concepts like templates, automations, and house styles were foreign to me. My approach upon receiving a file from the composer involved creating a spreadsheet, where I meticulously documented all necessary adjustments horizontally, with cue names listed vertically. Each time I opened a cue, I would have to adjust details like font size, staff size, and bar numbers for all parts.

While this method ensured uniformity, it wasn’t until I implemented a template that my workflow became significantly faster and more consistent. Over time, I refined my template to suit my preferences, making it 99% ready for each new project with all necessary tools readily available. Now, when embarking on a new project, I simply duplicate my template file, remove any unnecessary instruments, determine whether bar numbers in parts should be per system or per bar, and I’m good to go!

Let me guide you through the process of creating a stellar template, starting from scratch with a blank score.

Skin the Cat

There are various approaches to this task. Sibelius, for instance, allows you to export all your House Styles customized to your preferences. However, this excludes galleries or instruments. Another option is to export a score as a manuscript, but this doesn't transfer Document settings. Additionally, none of these options automatically update, necessitating careful saving and exporting each time you make changes.

My suggestion is to construct a score template and save it as a distinct file.

Over the upcoming months, we'll build one together. Whenever you find yourself adjusting something in a project, return to the template and refine it. If you collaborate with individuals who prefer different document settings, I recommend keeping those as separate house styles for importing. But, we'll address that aspect as we progress.

Setup

Let's begin from the ground up. Remember, your requirements may differ from mine, so take aspects like page size, instrumentation, and others with a grain of salt. My aim is to demonstrate what you might consider, not what you must do.

In the Quick Start dialog (command-N), double-click the ‘Blank’ score.

Right from the start, we'll be making some decisions in the score setup. I'll set the page size to A3, choose a general font, beam 4/4 every beat, and consolidate the tempo and metronome into one text box by typing a placeholder, and setting the 'no key' signature standard for film scores and assigning placeholder author names.

I'm also populating my orchestra with a standard, smaller instrumentation inside the ‘Change Instruments…’ dialog:

Once inside the score, our goal is to make as many global changes as possible. This involves adjusting text styles in 'Edit Text Styles,' making page modifications in 'Document Setup,' and configuring engraving preferences in 'Engraving Rules.' Familiarize yourself with their locations in the program and don't be intimidated by them.

Score Setup

The first step would be to create two pages, each containing four bars, to observe how the first and subsequent pages respond to our adjustments. Then, open Document Setup and experiment with margin settings and staff size. Here are some pointers to assist you as you begin:

Now proceed to label the instruments. Utilize Sibelius's recent staff label styles and click on the small greyed-out box near the systemic barline instead of the actual instrument name.

You need to edit these labels on the first page only. It may take some time, but it's better to set it up once and for all rather than repeating the process for every score. If you prefer the transposition to appear before the instrument name, access 'Edit Instruments' and make the adjustment there instead. Whenever you wish to modify the label in the full or short names of an instrument, avoid simply clicking the text and changing it. Instead, make the change consistently through this menu.

(You probably know the hotkey sequence for accessing Edit Instruments by now.)

Remove the bracket from the timpani. Timpani should only be bracketed when there is only one other percussionist. (No software gets this right.)

Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes

On each page there should be some non-musical text, both at the top and at the bottom. Click the ‘Copyright’ placeholder and continue editing the text. To the left of the backslash insert the copyright sign © by typing alt-G (if this doesn’t work do a quick Google-search for the symbol and paste it in). This is something you’ll otherwise need to do many times and you’ll kick yourself in the head for not remembering how to do.[^1]

My text box says:

This setup means that the text will be automatically filled with the copyright and composer information from the file's metadata. The \$code\ acts as a wildcard and dynamically populates information. You can find a helpful list of wildcard possibilities here.

At the top of the page, select 'Composer'. Then, go into 'Edit Text Styles' and choose 'Edit…'. Increase the font size to a size worthy of a glorious name, such as 14pt for scores and 12pt for parts.

Now, edit the 'Lyricist' text. Instead of adjusting the font directly, change the 'Based on' parameter to 'Composer'. This ensures that any parameter not manually altered will be inherited from the 'Composer' text style. Uncheck 'Size in score' and observe how the font sizes automatically update.

Just above the lyricist, there is a hidden 'Full Score' text. This serves as the part name header, visible in the parts. Now, I want my header there, indicating whether it is a concert or transposing score. However, note that this doesn't change the transposition state, and you need to remember to set it correctly in the Home menu. If you can't see it, ensure that 'Hidden Objects' are turned on and that 'Hide All' is not engaged.

Optional

Select 'Full Score' and open 'Edit Text Styles'. Since I want different information for parts and the score in the 'Instrument Name at Top Left', with that option selected, I click on 'New Text Style…'. At the moment, all I need to do is append the name with '(score)' to make it easy to distinguish. After confirming the changes, I exit all the menus. With the part name still selected, I change the style to the newly created one.

…and remember to make it visible by right-clicking → Hide or Show → Show in Score. We'll understand the usefulness of this when we start creating parts!

Every time I mention the above, feel free to skip this step. I customize the headers differently for the score and parts, and I prefer to place the information differently.

By now, you're familiar with all the menus and how to navigate them. So, I simply edit the Title text style to make it bold with an absolute size of 28pt. Additionally, I like to set the title to snap to the top margin instead of the top staff, so I do this:

We'll delve into the part settings in the next post.

For now, navigate to the second page and locate the header in the top center. Open 'Edit Text Styles' and create a new text style, appending it with '(score)', then change the header style to this new one. Make sure it's visible in the score. It will appear on all pages except the first. By default, it displays the part name (which we want for parts), but in the score, we might prefer the title or composer name, depending on the project.

Double-click it and continue editing. Add \$TITLE\ to the line.

You could also add 'composer' or 'lyricist' in the same manner. The key is that these placeholders update based on the File Info. So, each time you start a new score, you only need to input the information in the File Info, and it will automatically populate all the placeholders. Any other method risks old information persisting in the parts.

Now, back to the main show.

Time Sigs and Tempo

Many conductors have grown accustomed to the large time signatures that originated from studio recordings in the 1950s. That's why I've configured mine to resemble that style. In 'Engraving Rules', locate the menu 'Time Signatures' near the bottom and select 'Time signatures (film score)'. Then, click on 'Edit Text Style…' below. The default size may be a bit too large for my taste, so I set the 'Size in score' to 34 pts. You can adjust this according to your preferences, and as you experiment with your projects, you may find that you want it slightly differently. The resulting time signatures should look something like this:

I prefer to place the time signatures at the top, on the brass, percussion, and strings. In 'System Object Positions', I select those staves.

Currently, both the tempo and time signatures are placed on all system object positions. To adjust this, in 'Edit Text Styles', uncheck 'Bottom staff' from the Vertical position of Time Signatures (film score). This ensures that the time signatures will no longer appear at the bottom staff position.

For 'Tempo', we uncheck all but the 1st and 4th options, so it only appears above Flute 1 and Violin 1:

While we're here, we click on the 'Font' pane and increase the 'Size in score' to around 18pt.

After clicking out of all the menus, you'll likely notice that the text size has changed, but not the metronome value.

"That's strange," you might say, but I urge you not to change the font size manually. Instead, select it and choose 'reset design' in the Appearance menu.

Bar Nos

For studio-style scores, I prefer to have bar numbers on all the bars. Even for concerts, I haven't encountered any conductor who didn't appreciate this. Therefore, it's a standard part of my template. You can adjust this to your preferences, but to set it up, we need to navigate to 'Engraving Rules' under 'Bar Numbers'. Below, I've indicated all the changes I made from the default settings:

I removed bar numbers from the top Flute and 'Below bottom staff'. However, in reality, I mainly have them below the bottom staff.

To make them look good, go into 'Edit Text Style…' in the top right of the window. Change the font style to 'Bold' and set the 'Size in score' to something like 18 or 20.

Notice there's a checkbox called 'Keep absolute'. The setting to the left scales as the staff size changes, while the other does not. Don't tick anything yet, but keep an eye out for what you need for your projects.

Returning to Engraving Rules, I also prefer to have the rehearsal marks set to bar numbers.

Moving On

For now, our score is pretty much set, and we'll continue in the next post with preparing the parts.

Footnotes

1: Alternatively you can insert it with RayCast.

2: Composers do like to see their glorious name on a score.