# Score Reading



## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

As I've said before, I'm a score reading ignoramus. I understand notation, what all the symbols and words mean, and how it works. And I can follow a score of a piece I already mentally "know" without getting too lost, too often. But place a measure of music I don't know in front of me, and I couldn't sing it, hum it, or tell you at all how it went. So I have great respect for people who can read music.

So my question is this: When looking over a heretofore unfamiliar score, does one read it and mentally "hear" the music in tempo? Or can one glance across a line and know what it sounds like reading more fluidly?

(The precursor to this question occurred in the mid-70s, when I went to the U.S. premiere of the Tippett Third Symphony by the BSO under Colin Davis, and wound up sitting next to the Globe's music critic, Michael Steinberg. He offered me the score to look at beforehand, and I paged through it having no idea what I was seeing or how I should look like I knew what I was doing, or at what speed one was expected to absorb it.)


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

For those non-score readers (or is it: score non-readers?) I suspect one can look upon the musical pages as one might look upon any interesting page of calligraphy or graphic art. I don't read Chinese, but I can appreciate looking at Chinese calligraphy -- even marveling at the beauty of it all. Knowing that it has some _literate meaning_ gives me a sense of satisfaction, even though I don't know the words.

I've seen many scores that are fascinating simply to look at. Knowing that there is a _tonal language of sound_ capable of deriving from the symbolry provides that same sense of satisfaction.

These remarks likely don't answer your question, MarkW, but perhaps they provide a hint at how to approach a score page for your own personal enjoyment.









































Above are some scores I enjoy looking at.


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## UniversalTuringMachine (Jul 4, 2020)

Full score is always difficult, I don't know if you are formally trained musician. The expectation of reading it naturally is unrealistic if you have no formal music training.

After years of playing the piano as an amateur and listening with score, I can read the solo score somewhat fast. But without solid understanding of music theory, I don't see my self reading full orchestral score quickly. For me it always comes down to identifying structures in score, you recognize the forms, periods, phrases, and motifs. And if you have played enough music, you develop intuitive understanding of the rhythms and can sing intervals which can then be piece together to sing the whole thing. To understand harmony intuitively so that it sounds in your brain by reading it is difficult. I am very slow with that. It must be a practice thing.

It's important to identify the various voices when reading the orchestral score. Focus on the each line and ignore the rest, they are either chord note or non chord note for orchestral sound. But knowing some four part writing/counterpoint definitely helps if there are multiple voices.

Music is my hobby so don't take my word for it.


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## BenG (Aug 28, 2018)

Reading a score is like reading a book. When a good reader reads a book, they don't hear a voice in their head, they just know what it is saying. When an experienced score reader reads a score, they don't really hear the music in their head like a record, but they know what the music is saying - it's kind of hard to explain but I hope it answers one of your questions.


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## larold (Jul 20, 2017)

I've been a singer 60 years but can't "read" music and never know what key the music starts in without seeing it on a chart, having the accompanist play the note, or blowing it on a pitch pipe.

I follow the score like a road map; I can tell my part and how it relates to the tune, if it is in the same cleff and key, etc. If it is a difficult score like the entire thing for Handel's Messiah or an opera it is more difficult but my way has always worked for me.

When I read a score of something I'm going to perform that I don't know I follow my part against the melody or main tune. As a tenor we are often a couple notes above the sopranos who usually have the lead.

This often changes over the course of just a few bars; still it's how I stay connected to where I am supposed to be.

I am self-taught and only learned in the past decade when my part has a natural marking to read that against the key signature. In other words music marked natural and written in three flats (c minor) should be performed as a sharp.

Music is a wonderful way to learn new forms of problem resolution. If you are having trouble with a score try to find the melody and follow that. Then work your way elsewhere off that.


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

MarkW said:


> So my question is this: When looking over a heretofore unfamiliar score, does one read it and mentally "hear" the music in tempo? Or can one glance across a line and know what it sounds like reading more fluidly?


The quick answer: Yes. But to what degree is the question. After years of practice and experience, I can look at a score and quickly determine more or less what the sound is. The instrumentation, melodic lines, rhythm are quite clear. The harmonic structure takes more work especially with all the transposing wind instruments. Sometimes I have to sit at the piano and play through it to work out those details. To be effective as a conductor you have to be able to look at a score, listen to what the group is playing, and instantly decide if it's correct. I can "read" a score like I read books and often carry pocket scores on long flights for reading material.

How one goes about acquiring this skill is not difficult, just time consuming. If you want to be able to look at a bar and sing it, the best place to start is taking a course in ear training or sight singing. Any good musician must have both skills and it shocks me how many school music teachers can't do either. You cannot be a choral director without these essential skills. I suppose there are online or self study courses for this. As a grad student (in math!) I taught both courses for the university. Here are updated versions of the texts I used:


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

Score reading is most fulfilling...and it may greatly enhance one's listening enjoyment.
For those with basic music-reading skills, score reading is quite approachable - piano, or single line instrumental music is a fine start.
I've enjoyed score reading for as long as I've performed music (60+ years)....I began collecting scores at an early age, and untold hours were spent at Sibley Library (Eastman) listening to recordings with score in hand. 
Most classical scores are quite easy to read/follow - Haydn, Mozart, Bach, Handel - pretty straight ahead, not a lot of lines, usually small instrumentation. Scores get increasingly complex as we move into Romantic, and 20th century music....
20th century scores can be most complex, and quite challenging to read and follow - Strauss, esp the operas, Schoenberg, Berg, Carter, etc, employ huge orchestras, lots of percussion, augmented sections, etc. Sorting thru these can be most challenging!! Schoenberg actually used a system of brackets to indicate the melodic line segments - as an assist to performers to let them know when they were "carrying the ball". Melodic lines can jump about from section to section with remarkable rapidity...
There have been some very formidable score readers, who can essentially, hear the score in their head as they read it. Giants like Bernstein, Reiner, Solti, Karajan, Szell, Boulez, etc possessed this ability. Further, some are able to sit down at the piano and sight-read the score, including transposing various instrument parts at sight!! Bernstein recounted an audition he took to study conducting with Reiner....Reiner plopped a score in front of him, asked him to play it....before long, Lenny recognized some tunes emerging - it was Brahms "Academic Festival Ov.".
Perhaps most remarkable of all was Nadia Boulanger, the teacher/composer, who taught so many prominent American composers....according to Boris Goldovsky (a formidable reader himself), Boulanger would sit at the piano with a brand new score, sight-read it perfectly, all the while issuing critical comments on the composition itself!
The conductor, appearing before a professional orchestra, must know the score thoroughly...it is not enough to know that the 2nd clarinet has a Eb in measure 268....where does this note fit in melodically, or harmonically, what other instruments are sounding an Eb??
The conductor, thru study of the score, must know what is supposed to sound, before it even happens.

Obviously, for the recreational listener, score reading is far less intense or ambitious. It can be most enjoyable, and a great enhancement to musical enjoyment, esp when comparing different performances...don't be intimidated by it...start with simpler scores, go from there.


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## Fabulin (Jun 10, 2019)

Heck148 said:


> The conductor, appearing before a professional orchestra, must know the score thoroughly...it is not enough to know that the 2nd clarinet has a Eb in measure 268....where does this note fit in melodically, or harmonically, what other instruments are sounding an Eb??


I find it incredible that anyone other than the composer can memorize a long piece completely. I have to admit that I never tried though... Professionals must view it differently.


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

Fabulin said:


> I find it incredible that anyone other than the composer can memorize a long piece completely. I have to admit that I never tried though... Professionals must view it differently.


It's more than "memorizing" the score - it's knowing how it is supposed to sound, how all the parts sound together.
With classical or baroque pieces, it is not too difficult...and with tonal music, there is a definite melodic/harmonic path present in the music....things get complicated with atonal, or polytonal music...and of course the large orchestras employed add to the complexity. 
I find the late works of Mahler to be esp interesting - Sym #9, DLvDE. he uses a large orchestra, but the scoring is so clear, so transparent, so skillful...it's really quite marvelous.


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

I find that staffs for transposing instruments and staffs with clefs other than the treble and bass clefs give me the most trouble. I can't read them immediately upon sight. I have to somehow "translate them in my mind" to what I feel comfortable, the usual "piano version", non-transposing staffs with treble or bass clefs.





staffs for SATB, each with a different clef. 
This is just irritating. Why would anyone want to read in this format, 





When there are editions with SAT "translated" in treble clef?


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

Thanks guys !


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

Fabulin said:


> I find it incredible that anyone other than the composer can memorize a long piece completely. I have to admit that I never tried though... Professionals must view it differently.


There are some conductors who had true photographic memory: Lorin Maazel was famous for it. Toscanini, too. Many conductors don't truly memorize a score, they "learn it by heart" to use Bruno Walter's description. This is what most conductors who work without a score do. Some people are better at it than others. When I was much younger I found "memorizing" a score almost trivial and never used one to conduct. I filled in for an ill conductor at a dress rehearsal of Mahler 1 at the last moment and did it without a score in front of me. Once you know how a piece goes, it's not that hard. I used to be able to literally memorize music from recordings - once or twice on the turntable did the trick. (I even memorized where the ticks and pops were on the LP) But - opera, even some pops music I wouldn't be caught dead without a score. Doing a concerto you always use one so the soloist doesn't freak out. Then there are some conductors I know who can't even manage Stars and Stripes without a score. I am always in awe of pianists who have memorized all of the Beethoven sonatas and a boatload of major concertos. Now that's memorizing!


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## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

I'm an excellent sight reader when it comes to *piano scores*. Piano music ALWAYS made sense to me, even when my first piano teacher plopped that first John Thompson book in front of me. I've played many 1,000s of individual auditions, which allow for prep of maybe a minute or two at most.

These days I'm in a position where I'm reading lots of *choir scores*, often four staves at once, and usually with the tenor line written an octave higher than it's supposed to be played. This, for me, is a little challenging, depending on the complexity and unpredictability of the music.

As for *orchestral scores*, they're a bit tougher yet. I despise the C clef, and struggle to read music when cleffed this way. I'm occasionally called on to provide virtual scores, and I'll often simply ignore the viola part.


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

pianozach said:


> I'm an excellent sight reader when it comes to *piano scores*.
> As for *orchestral scores*, they're a bit tougher yet. I despise the C clef, and struggle to read music when cleffed this way. I'm occasionally called on to provide virtual scores, and I'll often simply ignore the viola part.


Yes, the C clefs are a unique case - bassoonists, cellists, trombonists all have to read tenor clef as a matter of routing...trombones sometimes alto [viola] clef. soprano clef is virtually never encountered in orchestral scores.
When I used to adjudicate high school All-State auditions for bassoon, the ability to read tenor clef was often used as the tie-breaker between the best candidates.


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

pianozach said:


> I'll often simply ignore the viola part.


So do most conductors.:lol:


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## Iota (Jun 20, 2018)

mbhaub said:


> So do most conductors.:lol:


But most definitely not all .. :lol:


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

pianozach said:


> I'll often simply ignore the viola part.





mbhaub said:


> So do most conductors.:lol:


I suspect that explains this?!!









At least when Harold was in Italy, we knew where he was.


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