Finale Forum

Dear all,

May I indulge on the collective wisdom of this worldly forum?

What are the words for Score and Parts, in the various European languages? If anyone knows what words the Portuguese musicians use for score and parts, that'd be particularly of interest.

I have heard of partitura, google says it's spanish... I thought it was italian...

Cheers,
HP.

Partitura and partes?? I'd use Italian-that's pretty universal.

I can help with the French terms :
Score = Conducteur ("Le conducteur", masculine. Plural : "Les conducteurs")
Part(s) = Partie(s) ("La partie", feminine. Plural : "Les parties")

P.S. : a useful site (but limited to instruments, orchestral terms in 4 languages : English, Italian, French, German) : https://www.fransabsil.nl/htm/instrum.htm.

michelp wrote:Score = Conducteur ("Le conducteur", masculine. Plural : "Les conducteurs")
Part(s) = Partie(s) ("La partie", feminine. Plural : "Les parties")

French is far from my native language, but I've seen the word 'partition' and believed that to be 'score'. But what does it mean really?

Anders Hedelin wrote:French is far from my native language, but I've seen the word 'partition' and believed that to be 'score'. But what does it mean really?

I've often seen 'partition' in French scores and took it to mean score. 'Partitur' in German. I have a recording of an interview with Dimitri Shostakovich, and speaking in Russian, he says 'partitura'.

I'd still recommend Italian, but what are 'score' and 'parts' in Italian?

N.

"Partition", in French, is a very generic word, a bit like sheet music in English.
It is occasionally used for score, correct, but more precisely one will refer to "Partition d'orchestre" (score). But you'll also see "Partition pour piano", "Partition pour guitare", "Magasin de partitions" (sheet music shop) etc.. So you see that the term is rather vague and used in many contexts.
"Conducteur", on the other hand, is unambiguous and by the way, it is the term used in the French version of Finale (and Sibelius). It is mostly used by classical composers. Among French speaking musicians, "score" is quite commonly used in other circles (jazz, film, pop,...).

In Québec I've most often seen either the English "score" or the French "partition maitresse" or "partition du chef".
I have yet to see "conducteur".

We generally refer to score and parts as "partition" and "materiaux d'orchestre" (score and orchestral parts/materials).

(excuse me for not using accents, I'm just lazy this morning.)

I could supply you with the unambiguous terms in Swedish... (Just kidding.)

German: Score = „Partitur“, Parts = „Stimmen“ or „Einzelstimmen“

You would use „Stimmen“ in a professional context, when it‘s clear that you speak of a score and parts. Watch out for the capital letter, „stimmen“ instead would mean „tuning“...

You would use „Einzelstimmen“ in a non-professional context or if you would like to stress the fact that the parts contain the music for a single instrument (which is not always self-evident, e.g. talking about choir music or parts containing multiple instruments in wind bands).

Et merci bien à michelp pour l‘explication et clarification du mot „partition“!

N Grossingink wrote:I'd still recommend Italian, but what are 'score' and 'parts' in Italian?

Partitura or Spartito are generally used for a score. Both can be used for a part, as can parte.

Partitura vocale; la parte della viola, etc, etc.

Musicians are going to be familiar with common musical terms in other languages, so I wouldn't worry about this too much, but "score" is kind of ambiguous, since it can apply to printed music of any kind, so I use "full score," "conductor's score," or "partitur" (the last not as common).