Tacet movements in parts

[mark carlson]

I have a three-movement piece, with all three movements in one continuous file. The middle movement is played by only about half the instruments. How can I indicated "tacet" for those instruments that don't play without just having a whole bunch of multi-measure rests in a row?

Thanks,

Mark Carlson
OS 13.2
Finale 27.3

[motet]

I do this all the time. Force everything into one system (there will indeed be a bunch of multimeasure rests in a row) then apply a custom staff style like the one below. There may be one or two other things to manually hide--I forget. I may have done something to get the final barline to appear. The big wide "multimeasure rest" symbol is a custom one I made in the shape designer.

If you just want text that says something like "II. Tacet" and no staff, just use the Force Hide Staff (Collapse) staff style--you don't even need to force everything into one system. Probably easiest to attach the text to the first measure of the next movement. I've found having the staff there makes it harder to miss, though.

[motet]

Another style I've used (no final barline).

[mark carlson]

Great! Thanks a million!

[motet]

Some people have a single page-wide empty measure between movements, which has the virtual of adding vertical space for the movement title, which can be centered between the barlines. The staff lines, clef, etc. can be suppressed if it's a movement title. For your tacet instruments, though, you could leave the staff if you want and change or add something to the title to say "tacet." I personally haven't done this, so can't give details.