Sibelius includes many text styles for use in your score. This topic describes many of these text styles in detail, though several of them are important enough that they have their own topics So what is a text style, anyway? There are many different kinds of text in used in scores, such as: lyrics, which go below the staff; expression markings, which are italic and normally go below the staff (except when there are lyrics present, in which case they go above the staff); titles which are big, bold and centered at the top of the page; and so on. Each kind of text may use a different font, formatting (such as bold, italic and, rarely, underlined), justification (such as left-, center- or right-alignment), and positioning (such as whether the text should appear above or below one staff or all staves, or perhaps at the top or bottom of the page). These settings together are what make up a text style. Because Sibelius has text styles for each of the kinds of text you will need to write in your score, you don’t need to set any of this up for yourself: simply choose the appropriate text style, and Sibelius will produce text that looks right, and that goes in the right place on the page. The other advantage of text styles is that if you want to change something about the appearance of text in your score – for example, you want to make all your lyrics bigger, or make your tempo instructions use a different font – you need only change the text style itself, and Sibelius will automatically update all the text in the score that uses that text style. Three types of text There are three types of text in Sibelius (try saying that three times quickly!): * Staff text: text that applies to a single staff, typically directions for a single instrument * System text: text that applies to all staves in the score (though it may only be displayed above one or two of them), and which will appear in all parts (if there are any) – typically tempo or rehearsal directions * Blank page text: text that can only be created on a blank page, typically performance directions or other front matter. The table below lists the most important text styles and what they are used for. Staff text Expression writing dynamics and expressive markings such as mp, cresc. and legato Shortcut: Ctrl+E Technique writing playing techniques such as “mute,” “pizz.”, etc. Shortcut: Ctrl+T Lyrics line 1, Lyrics line 2 etc. writing lyrics in vocal music Shortcut: Ctrl+L (Line 1), Ctrl+Alt+L (Line 2) Chord symbol writing e.g. Cm7 Shortcut: Ctrl+K Plain text writing blocks of lyrics, editorial commentaries, etc. Roman numerals writing chord symbols with inversions in Roman numerals Figured bass figuring continuo instruments in Baroque music Fingering writing fingerings in e.g. keyboard, brass or string music Guitar fingering (p i m a) ...writing fingerings in guitar music Boxed text writing certain playing techniques, e.g. in percussion Small text writing certain playing techniques Nashville chord numbers writing e.g. 6/3 Footnote writing editorial commentaries at the bottom of a single page (not the same as Footer) System text Title writing the title of the piece or movement Subtitle writing subtitles (e.g. for a particular movement) Composer writing the name of the composer (usually all in CAPITALS) or arranger/orchestrator (not in capitals) Lyricist writing the name of the lyricist, poet, or other source of text Dedication writing a dedication (e.g. To the choir of St. John’s) Tempo writing tempo markings such as Andante Shortcut: Ctrl+Alt+T Metronome mark writing metronome marks and metric modulations Copyright writing copyright lines in your score Header etc. writing a header on every page Footer etc. writing a footer on every page (not the same as Footnote) Rit./Accel. writing particular tempo instructions Blank page text Composer (on blank page) writing the name of the composer on a title page at the start of the score Dedication (on blank page) writing a dedication on a title page at the start of the score Plain text (on blank page) writing instrumentation, performance directions, etc. on blank pages Subtitle (on blank page) writing a subtitle on a blank page Title (on blank page) writing the title of the work on a title page at the start of the score Positioning Expression and Technique text Expression text goes below the staff it applies to, but above in staves with lyrics. Technique text goes above the staff. For music in two voices, both Expression and Technique text goes above the staff for Voice 1 and below for Voice 2. If Expression or Technique text applies to both hands of a keyboard instrument, it should go between the staves. The left-hand side of Expression text normally goes just to the left of the note to which it applies. If it has to be written on a staff (which is best avoided), the crossbar should be positioned over a staff line for clarity. Similarly, techniques on a staff should be centered on a space. Expression This text style is for writing dynamics and other similar instructions to players, e.g. legato, lively, marcato. These are written in italics. Dynamics such as mf or sfz are special bold italic characters that use a special “music text” fontnormally Opus Text. You can create these characters from the word menu (right-click or Control-click), or by holding down Ctrl or and typing the letters, e.g. Ctrl+MF to produce mf. The exception is z, for which you must type Ctrl+Shift+Z because Ctrl+Z is the shortcut for Edit > Undo). All common expression markings can be created quickly from the word menu, to save you typing them. Lyrics and Chord symbols These text styles are a bit special. b 3.3 Lyrics and 3.4 Chord symbols. Title, Subtitle, Composer, Lyricist, Dedication It’s quickest to create most of these from the File > New dialog when first setting up your score, though you can easily add them later. By default, these text styles are left-, center- or right-aligned on the page, which means you can only drag text in these styles up and down, not left or right. You can put titles above any system in your score, not just at the start – you might want a new title at the start of a new section, song or movement, say – though if you do this it is best to put a system or page break at the end of the previous system to keep the sections separated. Occasionally (e.g. for high-volume copying work) you may want these text styles to go at a fixed position on the page rather than relative to the top staff. To achieve this, set the Vertical Posn tab) for each style in the House Style > Edit Text Styles (shortcut Ctrl+Shift+Alt+T dialog to a fixed mm from top margin. Rules for fingering In keyboard music, fingerings for the right hand go above the notes, and for the left hand go below the notes. Triplets and other tuplets should be moved to the other side of the notes if necessary, to avoid collisions. Common text styles Small text and Boxed text These are for other technique-like instructions. Boxed text is useful for important instructions such as changes of instrument. Copyright A copyright line is normally written on the first page of a score. This text style (choose Create > Text > Other system text > Copyright) goes at the bottom of the page, centered, and appears in all parts. The © symbol is available from the word menu. You should create the text on the first bar of the score – though it will appear at the bottom of the page, it will in fact be attached to the first bar, which will ensure it always remains on the first page even if the score reformats. Footnote This positions text at the bottom of the page. To create a footnote, select a note in the staff and bar you want the footnote to refer to, then choose Create > Text > Other Staff Text > Footnote. The caret will nonetheless appear at the foot of the page. You can refer to the footnote with an asterisk or numeral using (say) Technique text above the staff. The footnote you type will always stay on the same page as the bar it’s referring to. It will also appear only in the part of the staff in question. Header and Header (after first page) Headers are text that goes at the top of every page – e.g. the name of the piece, or instrument in a part. Header (within Other System Text) produces the same text on every page; if you change the header on any page, it automatically changes on all other pages. Headers and footers appear on the page where you place them and all subsequent pages, but not previous pages. So you should normally place the header/footer on the first page, so they appear throughout. Header (after first page) works the same but is always shown hidden on the first page, to avoid colliding with the title. Headers are system text and so appear in all parts. Footer Footers are text that goes at the bottom of every page. Create > Text > Other System Text > Footer (outside edge) goes on the right of right-hand pages and the left of left-hand pages; Footer (inside edge) goes on the inside edge. As with headers, you should normally create the footer on the first or perhaps the second page; it will automatically appear on all subsequent pages (but not previous ones). If you change the footer on any page, it automatically changes on all other pages. Footers are system text and so appear in all parts. Plain text To create plain text in your score, for example to type miscellaneous performance instructions or blocks of lyrics, use Create > Text > Other Staff Text > Plain text. Text 183 3. Text 3.3 Lyrics b 3.1 Working with text, 3.10 Edit Text Styles. v Text. Lyrics are words written under notes to be sung by a singer. There are three ways of creating lyrics: * typing them in directly; * copying lyrics syllable by syllable into Sibelius from a word processor or other program; * automatically flowing lyrics into the score from a text file, with Sibelius automatically allocating syllables to notes for you. Lyrics in a “block,” for extra verses at the end of a song or hymn, are created differently because they don’t align with the notes – see Blocks of lyrics below. Typing lyrics To type lyrics directly into Sibelius: * Input the notes for which you want to write lyrics * Select the note where you want the lyrics to start and choose Create > Text > Lyrics > Lyrics line 1 (shortcut Ctrl+L or XL) * Start typing lyrics