Score, in music, is a written or printed piece of music arranged for instruments or voices. It contains the music for all the performers required by a particular composition. The music composed for an opera, musical comedy, stage show, or motion picture is usually called a score.
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A score consists of groups of horizontal lines called staves drawn or printed on a sheet of paper. A single group of lines is called a staff or stave, and in conventional Western music there are five lines and four intervening spaces to each staff. On the lines and in the spaces of each staff, the composer writes the music for a particular part—that is, a specific instrument, voice, or orchestral section. Some of the staves are bracketed together to show that the musical parts written on them must be performed simultaneously. A set of staves bracketed in this way is called a system. The symbols used in writing music down are collectively known as musical notation. For a full explanation of musical notation, see Music (Musical notation) .
A score displaying all the parts required for a piece of music is known as a full score. Full scores for an orchestral work, also known as orchestral scores, usually have one system per page, with the parts arranged in a traditional order. This arrangement starts with woodwind instruments at the top of the page, followed by brass instruments, then timpani and other percussion instruments. Next come optional parts, including harp, solo voice or instrument, and choir. Finally, strings (first and second violins, violas, cellos, and double basses) are placed at the bottom of the page. A conductor uses a full score for directing a piece in both rehearsal and performance. A full score can be complicated to read and perform from, so orchestral musicians play from parts copied out from the score and printed and published separately.
A vocal score contains the separate voice part or parts and an accompaniment for keyboard. The accompaniment may be especially written for piano by the composer or may be a condensed version of an orchestral accompaniment. This condensed version, written on two staves, is called a reduction and is intended mostly for rehearsal only. A composer may also use a reduction when first sketching out a new composition. He or she will then score or orchestrate the piece (decide which instruments or voices will be used to play individual parts). The initial sketch in the form of a reduction is often said to be in short score. The full score, with all its parts separately displayed on the page, is often called open score.
