Score

What it means

A score shows all the voices of a work one below another, so that what sounds simultaneously also stands vertically aligned. This is its decisive feature and the reason for its usefulness: the combined sound becomes visible. Whoever reads from a score sees not only their own line but the structure — the harmony, the voice leading, the entry of a theme in another voice.

In the notation

The order of the staves follows a fixed arrangement: in the orchestral score, from top to bottom, woodwinds, brass, percussion, where applicable solo instruments and voices, and at the bottom the strings. Brackets group the sections together, continuous barlines show their extent. At the beginning of every system, clef and key signature stand again, and at the very beginning additionally the instrument names. Transposing instruments carry their pitch in the name; a score notated at sounding pitch dispenses with this and writes everything at actual pitch. Staves that rest for a longer time are omitted in many editions.

Musical use

Historically the score is younger than the music it represents: the polyphony of the Renaissance was transmitted in choirbooks or partbooks, in which no one had the overall context before their eyes. Only with the figured bass and the growing complexity of scorings did the score arrangement become established. Alongside the conducting score there is the small-format study score for following along and analysis, as well as the vocal score, which draws the texture together onto two staves.

The score is to be distinguished from the single part, which contains only one line, and from the choirbook, which shows all voices but not one below another.

Performance practice

Do not read a score from top to bottom but look first for the leading line and follow it; the other staves then arrange themselves by themselves. Before the first run-through, make clear to yourself which instruments are notated transposing. When following a recording, it helps to orient yourself by striking entries rather than by every bar — lost orientation is found again fastest at a grand pause or a thematic entry.