User manual

Brackets and braces
Brackets and braces are thick straight and curved lines in the left-hand margin that show
instrument groupings.
Brackets
A bracket is a thick black line, the width of a beam, that groups staves together, most commonly
according to instrument family. It often has winged ends that point inwards towards the score.
It is always positioned directly to the left of a systemic barline. If secondary brackets are used in
addition to a bracket, they are positioned further away from the start of the system to allow
space for the bracket.
An example of a bracket, connecting instruments in the string family. A sub-bracket connects the two violin
lines.
In Dorico SE, barlines join the same staves that are joined by brackets and braces, meaning that
bracketed groups of staves and braced pairs of staves appear with barlines extending across the
group.
Braces
A brace is a wavy or curly line that joins multiple staves belonging to the same instrument,
usually a grand staff instrument such as the piano or harp. If necessary, a brace can extend to
three or more staves, although two is most common.
The brace is also sometimes used instead of a sub-bracket to show groupings of identical
instruments within a family whose staves are joined by a bracket.
It is positioned outside the systemic barline, and if used in place of a sub-bracket, outside of the
bracket as well.
527
Dorico SE 3.1.10