Questions that need answering when you open a score

Is this the first time you’ve looked at an orchestra score? What do you need to know? Answering these questions will help you figure out what’s going on.

Preliminary: What is the language in the score?

Scores use different languages, based on the nationality of the composer or the publisher. Classical scores often use Italian, but composers in some countries prefer their own language, so French and German are common too. You will want to get familiar with instrument names (and their abbreviations) in English, German, French, Italian, and even Spanish, for classical scores. The performance directions may be in the standard Italian, in the composer’s language, or a mix.

Now on to the technical details of the music. Keep in mind: all these descriptions are about what is usually in the score. Each publisher or self-published composer has their own style, layout, and may or may not provide as much information as you would like.

What are the instruments?

The first page of music or an intro page should list all the instruments in the ensemble with the full names of the instruments. The intro page will usually include a list of all the percussion instruments used too. After the first page of music, the left margin should show abbreviations of the instrument names. Also, after the first page, if instruments aren’t playing, their staves may be removed from some of the systems to save paper. So, those abbreviations are important on every page for identifying the instruments.

A couple of links for instrument names and abbreviations:

Yale Music Library: https://web.library.yale.edu/cataloging/music/instname

Arranger Fran Absil – names and abbreviations: https://www.fransabsil.nl/htm/instrum.htm

What are the clefs?

If you only know treble or bass clef, you’ll find some new clefs in a full-orchestra score. The viola uses alto clef. Low instruments (bassoon, trombone, cello, double bass) often use tenor clef, and even treble clef, for passages in their upper register. Unpitched percussion may use the “neutral” clef or no clef at all. Read more about the history and mechanics of clefs:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clef

Is it a transposed score or a C score (concert pitch)? 

If the first page of the score doesn’t say “Transposed score” or “Score in C” or something similar, you can tell that it’s a transposed score if there are different key signatures for the usual transposing woodwinds. Note that trumpets and especially horns are often written without key signatures for historical reasons, whether the score is in C or not.

If the piece is not tonal, there may be no key signatures at all, so check the instrument list or look for text stating whether the score is transposed or concert pitch.

Which instruments are transposed? What is their interval of transposition?

You can’t tell what the harmony is in a transposed score without identifying the transposition intervals of instruments like clarinets, horns, and trumpets. Learn more about transposition: https://www.musicnotes.com/blog/learn-transpose-music
(There may be other web pages for this. I’m researching…)

Also, note that some instruments transpose by an octave. For example, double bass sounds down an octave. Piccolo sounds an octave higher than written. Celesta and glockenspiel sound two octaves higher.

What are the performance directions in the various parts and what do they mean?

If you are not familiar with a playing technique or instruction, make sure you look it up. Some terms are in the Spindrift Music Thesaurus, but this was originally designed for English-language composers looking for an expressive word in another language. Wikipedia provides a starting point: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_music_terminology

You can also translate more wordy performance directions in a tool like DeepL: https://www.deepl.com/en/translator

When there is more than one part on a staff, how does the score indicate who is playing?

To save space and make the score more readable, the score can show parts for two players of the same instrument on one staff, for example, two flutes. When both instruments play at the same time, stems up and stems down can show which player plays which notes. When you see a single line, you might see a2 meaning both play the same line; or 1. or 2. to specify one of the players. Or the score might show a whole-measure rest in the other part. These labels can vary based on the country, publisher, or some other preference.

On to the music

That gets us through some mechanics. With practice, you’ll digest most of these points at a glance. Now you’re ready to look at the notes and rhythms and digest the actual music.

So what does the music sound like? What do you want to digest in the music?

• You can read the score as you listen to a recording.
• You might play various lines on a keyboard or other instrument.
• You can work on being able to reduce the score to a playable number of notes, either by transcribing it on paper or doing it on sight. Sightreading scores at a keyboard is a difficult but learnable skill with practice. It can be quite a challenge with a transposed score.
• You might be examining the score from a theoretical viewpoint, looking for patterns of motives, harmonies and rhythms.
• You can audiate the score in your head.