scoring question for flutes?

I am not sure why the previous posters have insisted on giving each instrument its own staff because it is common practice to put 2 (and, more rarely, if the music is not complex, 3) instruments on a single staff. If you allocated each individual instrument its own staff you'd soon land up with a behemoth of a score that was too large to be practical.

My advice: Put flutes 1 & 2 on one staff, 3 on another and the alto on its own staff.

We can all guess until we know your composition. If the 3 flutes parts are highly independent and complex - then obviously they need their own staves. If 3rd is doubling a lot on alto, then, as a PLAYER, I see the better solution in a *muta* part - "change to alto here" , "change to C flute here". This happen all the time in 3rd flute/piccolo parts (I realize they are in the same key - but they do not both read *loco*, do they?)

So - is the FOUR players, all having discrete work to do, or THREE players, one of whom doubles? If there are ever FOUR notes coming from the section - alto gets their own part. I have a friend who got paid for sitting on stage for a long work, while he waited to play his SIX NOTES on the English horn. Duh.

I will go ask this on FLUTENET, the most active Yahoo flute-related group. ADDED - Ok, just got a response from an expert:

Now I'm just guessing here, but from past scores I've seen, I think I can picture it working this way:

Flutes 1, 2 are on one stave on the score*.

Flutes 3, 4 on the score's second stave*.

[*Note: I recommend when printed for individual parts, each flutist is given independent staves; no stacked chords in flute parts please (!)]

If Flute 4 is to play the Alto flute throughout, this can appear at

pitch in the conductor's C-score.

The individual Flute 4 part would contain the transposed version for Alto flutist in G.

Of course, as you say xxx, when printing parts for the players,

the composer will have to decide if four flutists with four

independent printed parts are actually needed (with the Alto flute so often too quiet to be audible without amplification), or whether the composer can double up for that fourth player by allowing Flute 3 to double on Alto only for audible Alto sections.

So the final score would look something like this:

Fl. 1-2

Fl. 3-4

Oboe 1-2

Clar. 1-3

Bssn 1-3

or

Fl. 1-2

Fl. 3 doubling Alto flute

Oboe 1-2

Clar. 1-2

Bssn 1-2

You should not put the three flutes on one staff unless you are doing some type of condensed score.

The best choice would be each part on its own staff. If you are limited in the number of staves available for your score, then use two staves for the three flutes with 1st and 2nd on one staff and 3rd on the other. However, choice of which two parts to place on one staff might be affected by how often the various parts play the same notes. If 1st and 2nd flutes play unison a lot then I would place them on the same staff, if 2nd and 3rd play together a lot then put them together.

Hope this solves your problem.

Musician, composer, teacher.

I'm afraid you will need three staffs.

On page 336 of "Music Notation: by Gardner Read, if you have 3 parts for the same instrument, 1 and 2 go on one staff and 3 goes on another staff.

On the same page, it forbids putting a C instrument and a transposing instrument on the same staff, even if they are played by the same person.

Dvorak always used the same staff for oboe and English horn. This was possible because he never called for both instruments at the same time. When he called for English horn, he didn't change the key signature, but rather accounted for the difference in key through accidentals.

Whether Dvorak did it or not, it's a nono.

You will need independent staffs for each instrument. Fl. 1, Fl 2, Fl 3, Alto Fl.

Unless the instruments are doing little more than parallel motion, you cannot make a reduction of the staffs.

simple

2 on a staff; sticks up for 1st Fl sticks down for 2nd