ors of learning to read an orchestral score.
For this reason a few suggestions upon _score reading_ are added as a
final paragraph in this chapter, and an example of a score is supplied
at the end of the book--Appendix B (p. 166.)
The main difficulties involved in reading a full score are: first,
training the eye to read from a number of staffs simultaneously and
assembling the tones (in the mind or at the keyboard) into chords; and
second, transposing into the actual key of the composition those parts
which have been written in other keys and including these as a part of
the harmonic structure. This latter difficulty may be at least
partially overcome by practice in arranging material for orchestra as
recommended on page 101; but for the first part of the task, extensive
practice in reading voices on several staffs is necessary. The student
who is ambitious to become an orchestral conductor is therefore
advised, in the first place, not to neglect his Bach during the period
when he is studying the piano, but to work assiduously at the two- and
three-part inventions and at the fugues. He may then purchase
miniature scores of some of the string quartets by Haydn, Mozart, and
Beethoven, training himself to read all four parts simultaneously,
sometimes merely trying to hear mentally the successive harmonies as
he looks at the score, but most often playing the parts on the piano.
After mastering four voices in this way, he is ready to begin on one
of the slow movements of a Haydn symphony.
In examining an orchestral score, it will be noted at once that the
string parts are always together at the bottom of the page, while the
wood-wind material is at the top. Since the strings furnish the most
important parts of the harmonic structure for so much of the time, our
amateur will at first play only the string parts, with the possible
addition of the flute, oboe, and certain other non-transposed voices a
little later on. But as he gains facility he will gradually be able to
take in all the parts and to include at least a sort of summary of
them all in his playing. The student is advised to purchase a number
of the Haydn and Mozart symphonies either in the form of pocket
editions or in the regular conductor's score, and to practise on these
until he feels quite sure of himself. By this time he will be ready to
try his hand at a modern score, which will be found not only to
contain parts for more instruments, but many more divide
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