Notation Programs' Output Comparison

[Knut]

Maybe we could make a competition? The winner will get nothing but we could make a petition for him/her to get job at Universal/Ricordi/Henle/BH...
Therefore, the chosen piece could be a bad engraved score from a current publisher, and send it to them for information.
I have some of my favourites, like late Scriabin sonatas, or similar.
...I am not quite serious, but well...

I like the idea of choosing a badly engraved piece as the source material (although perhaps that narrows the choices down even more than with John's list of criteria). This has the main advantage of being a 'real' engraving job, as opposed to, more or less, copying an already existing beautifully engraved piece.

[OCTO]

... rather not piano music. Maybe some string quartet music? Janaček?

[Knut]

... rather not piano music. Maybe some string quartet music? Janaček?

I'm guessing that would be too daunting a task for such a project.

Scriabin has some short preludes that might qualify, tough I don't know if the manuscripts are available anywhere.

[OCTO]

Or just the first pages.
Scriabin sonata 7 or 10
Janaček one mvt from the quartets
One choral piece with lyrics.

Some of Alban Berg?

[OCTO]

Or just the first pages.
Scriabin sonata 7 or...

http://www.dovesong.com/positive_music/ ... %207th.jpg


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[John Ruggero]

Scriabin Poeme op. 59 no. 1 and Masque op. 63 no. 1 autographs at IMSLP and the pieces are short

The only problem with these and the Scriabin Preludes, as with most of the Chopin Preludes is that there is not a lot of variety in the notation, since most preludes carry out a single pattern.

The Webern String Quartet pieces op. 5 nos 2 or 4 or the Pieces for violin ad piano op. 7 nos. 1, 3 and 4 are each one page long and in the PD. But no autograph.

It would be great to find something badly engraved, but that would probably also be something relatively obscure.
How wide a range of engravers we are aiming at?
Are we looking for something in which readers can compare the engraving side by side?

[John Ruggero]

The Scriabin Sonata no. 7 works if an excerpt is acceptable and we want a challenge that may limit the entries. The latter is also true of the Webern and Scriabin pieces I mentioned in my post above. If the piece is not known to a wide range of readership, there might be less interest. But whether this is true or of real concern is for others to decide.

[tisimst]

Here's my 2 cents, by way of suggestion...

1. I don't think it matters too much how well-known the source score is, though it could be nice. What I think does matter is how "interesting" the notation actually is.

2. I think it's better to have a single page, if possible, whether it is an excerpt or the entire work. That way, in a PDF viewer, the interested reader can quickly jump from one full page to the next to see differences between programs.

3. At least two simultaneous staves (like Piano), but probably no more than three since that begins to limit how much can usually fit on a single page.

4. (A personal one) I like the idea of showing both a program's "default" appearance (meaning, font, line thicknesses, etc.--everything) and then allowing the engraver the liberty to change any engraving/layout setting they wish that "improves" the engraving, all the while maintaining the content of the score. Maybe the final compilation could have two sections, one for the default and one for the customized.

I'm liking where this is going!

[OCTO]

I can compose a piece for that purpose.
A piece for piano solo including pianist's singing in mezzosoprano clef.

[OCTO]

A short comment about "default" settings. I don't believe in default settings, at least not for Finale neither Sibelius. What I mean is that someone adjusted software settings in order to present "some kind of house style". I remember clearly how the default document in Finale has been changing and it will change in the future.
The default settings would be if we put all settings at 0 value and turn off all knobs.