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Incipit style guide
Introduction
Incipits for the website are created using Sibelius. Whilst experience with Sibelius is helpful, it is not necessary: new and eager contributors can learn quickly and gain experience by preparing contributions. After some practice, most incipits can be created in 5–10 minutes, depending on the complexity.
This page is split into two sections: a style guide for submissions so as to create consistency across content on the website, and some brief hints for contributors who are less familiar with Sibelius.
Style guide
A template file, Template.sib (Sibelius version 7.1) contains many default settings and should be used as a basis for submissions. You can make a copy of the file and enter the incipit directly into it.
General
- It is often good if the incipit matches the phrasing. For example, if the opening of the piece comprises a 1-bar introduction then a 4-bar phrase, a 5-bar incipit (to include all of the first phrase) is probably better than a 4-bar incipit.
- If it makes sense, incipits need not finish at the end of a bar, such as in the case of an upbeat (e.g. George Frideric Handel · Air in G minor, HWV 467). In this case, the incipit should end with a dashed bar line (Home · Split to shorten the bar length, then Notations · Barline · Dashed to change the bar line).
Spacing
- Aim for sensible spacing. There is no need to squash everything into the smallest possible size. There also should not be large amounts of white space.
- After entering all notes and before tweaking the layout, it is highly recommended to reset the horizontal spacing (Ctrl+Shift+N). This usually gives a good starting point where only smaller changes are required.
- By default, magnetic layout is turned on, which usually helps to maintain appropriate spacing. It can, of course, be turned off where this helps, such as when objects are especially close together.
- The default spacing between the upper and lower staves is 7. This can be increased if necessary (Layout · Spaces Between Staves); if so, it should be the same for all systems. For a two-system incipit, the spacing between systems can also be increased. Neither of these should be decreased.
Text
The two main text styles are Tempo (Ctrl+Alt+T) and Expression (Ctrl+E).
Symbols
- Include the time signature only when present in the score. If an incipit is for the middle of the piece, hide the Sibelius time signature (Ctrl+H).
- It is usually preferred for all hairpins (crescendi/decrescendi) to be horizontally straight, not to slant upwards or downwards. The default open size (1.25) is usually fine unless the hairpin must be extremely short.
- For pedal markings with releases, use the Pedal (no line) style, not the Pedal style, unless for a good reason.
Examples
There are thousands of incipits on the website that can be checked for inspiration and comparison. Further, below is a collection of existing Sibelius files from which incipits on the website have been extracted.
The website also contains basic audio files for each incipit. Contributors are not required to prepare these, but are welcome to do so if they wish: if so, see the second pages of the files above.
Help
To a newcomer, Sibelius can feel daunting. The first incipits will take a long time to create. However, every hurdle and question leads to experience and knowledge for the future, with a strong and satisfying learning curve. Contributors are always welcome to ask for help.
It is usually best to split the task into two stages: i) entering the raw content and ii) visual editing of the layout.
For each staff, notes in Sibelius are created from four voices (labelled in the Keypad window). It is often the case that multiple voices are needed on each staff.
- It is usually quickest to add notes using the computer keyboard, not the mouse.
- After entering a first note with the mouse, use the computer keypad (1–9) to select the next note length and any accidentals, then type (A–G) the next note.
- Raise or lower the note by an octave using Ctrl+Up or Ctrl+Down.
- Use + on the keyboard keypad to cycle through the options on the Sibelius Keypad window, such as grace notes and articulation.
- The direction of a note stem can be flipped by pressing X on the keyboard.
- To move a note to the other staff (e.g. if four beamed quavers start in the upper staff but move to the lower staff), select it and press Ctrl+Shift+Up or Ctrl+Shift+Down.
- Some rests in voices are not needed. This can simply be hidden by selecting them and pressing Ctrl+H.
- At the end of the incipit, select the last bar line and press Enter to create a line break. Anything after this line break will simply be stripped out when extracting the final incipit for the website.
After adding notes, other content can be added, such as slurs (S), hairpins (H and Shift+H), tempi (Ctrl+Alt+T), other text (Ctrl+E, right-click for more text options), various lines (L) and symbols (Z). Their exact locations can be changed later.
- When adding a slur, select a note first and then press S. This connects the slur to the note. The end of the slur is also connected to a note, which can be moved by pressing Space or Shift+Space. The slur can be flipped by pressing X.
In general, the default Sibelius settings are good: they should be taken as a starting point, with manual tweaks made afterwards where appropriate. Before beginning adjustments to the layout, it is almost always good to reset the default horizontal spacing (Ctrl+Shift+N).
- Start by checking the distance between staves and raising it (Layout · Spaces Between Staves) if there is insufficient space.
- When tweaking the layout, it is helpful to have the Inspector toolbar (Ctrl+Shift+I) open and pinned.
- The positioning of many elements can be adjusted by selecting them and using the arrow keys on the computer keyboard or adjusting the entries in the Inspector toolbar.
- Sibelius has magnetic layout enabled, which usually improves the default spacing. If this gets in the way (for example, when a slur and hairpin must overlap or be close to each other), then it can be turned off for an object after selecting it (Layout · Magnetic Layout · Object Off).
- It is sometimes helpful to copy/paste objects if they should have exactly the same appearance.
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