Create separate parts from a group when using the Staff Names feature in Sibelius

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Sibelius 2022.9 introduces Staff names, a new text style that provides an additional way of labeling staff names, effectively allowing allows groups of instruments and individual staves to be named separately.

The method of showing a centered group name with individual staff names requires the user to create an instrument with an additional staff. This means that when you automatically create dynamic parts in your Sibelius document, by default Sibelius will only create one part with all of the staves in the grouped instrument, instead of individual parts for each staff, which is usually more desirable.

Until or unless Sibelius is improved in the future to perform this task automatically, here’s how to create separate parts from an instrument with more than one staff.

In this example, we’re working on the horns, which have been set up by creating a single Horns instrument with an Extra staff added Below the initial staff; hence the labels Horns (a) and Horns (b) in the Add or Remove Instruments dialog.

This is what it looks like in the score:

By default, Sibelius will have only created one part for the horns, which show both horn staves.

Keep this part, but add a second identical (for the moment) part, by going to Parts > Setup > New Part, selecting either of the Horns (a) or Horns (b) staves, and clicking Add to Part >> . This will add both horn staves to the new part. Click OK.

As expected, you’ll now have two identical Horns parts, each with both horn staves.

In File > Info > Show info for, select the first Horns part and, in Part name, rename it Horn 1.

Do the same for the Horn 2 part.

In your newly named Horn 1 part, inĀ Parts > Setup > Staves in Part, select the Horns (b) staff (this is the Horn 2 part) and click << Remove from Part.

This will leave you with just the Horns (a) part for your Horn 1 part. Click OK.

Do the same for your Horn 2 part, just the other way around:

  • In Parts > Setup > Staves in Part, select the Horns (a) staff (this is the Horn 1 part) and click << Remove from Part;
  • This will leave you with just the Horns (b) part for your Horn 2 part;
  • Click OK.

The newly separated Horn 1 and Horn 2 parts will appear in the list of parts and you can work with them in the usual manner.

Comments

  1. Luis Acosta

    Looks like a job for a plug-in.

  2. Kc Daugirdas

    I’m using this workflow now, and it’s INSANELY buggy. For example, I create a four-staff instrument (“Horns”), and then create individual parts with each of the four staves, and rename each part accordingly (“Horn 1, Horn 2, etc.”). As soon as I go back to the New Part dialog and create another new part, my name changes for all the individual parts disappear and revert back to the original “Horns.” The Score Info dialog is also extremely buggy, and sometimes doesn’t let me change the name of a part at all; I have to edit the “$PART NAME=” wildcard. Anyone else experiencing this? I would tell Sibelius, but they make you PAY THEM to contact support. Ugh!

    1. Philip Rothman

      Hi KC,

      I’m wondering if you’ve seen the 2022.10 update, which included the “Make Into Part” Command. Although I feel there are many refinements that could be added to make this process better, it’s at least an improvement over what was offered when 2022.9 came out.

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