[ANN] Seven Music Notation Programs

[jrethorst]

About ten years ago a group of us decided to do a comparison of the most popular notation programs, to see how each program looked in print. Although one program's output can be made to look much like another's, some aspects of that are easier to do, and it’s interesting how the personality of the pages varies.

I mentioned this to Abraham Lee, a noted designer of music fonts, who replied:

> I couldn’t agree more! It really is amazing to see how each application embeds its own personality into the score’s appearance, beyond what is “correct” or not. Truly fascinating, indeed!

Although feature set and interface may be more important to some in the choice of an engraving program, this comparison was done for those especially interested in high quality publication.

Unsolicited comments on "Six Music Notation Programs" included “Absolutely amazing! . . . Interesting! . . . This is certainly a worth while endeavor . . . a really great idea and I’m glad that someone is taking the time to do it the right way . . . I love seeing how each program handles music.”

It's time for an update, both to include two new popular programs and to revise other programs' samples using the latest versions. So "Seven Music Notation Programs", with a one-page score for classical guitar as done in Finale, LilyPond, MuseScore, Notion, Overture, Score and Sibelius, is at:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/643 ... ograms.pdf

Enjoy,
John R.

[Ralph L. Bowers jr.]

Even though there are some editorial errors across the programs from the original document I much preferred the out put from Finale.

[Fred G. Unn]

The "D.C. al [sign] et poi la Coda" essentially is D.C. al Coda, but the performer jumps when they reach the [sign], correct? Is there any point in using that archaic phrase other than to be historically accurate? Even one of the copyists was confused and simply put "D.S. al Coda." As long as they are performed the same, I think for clarity I would be more inclined to simply use the conventional D.C. al Coda and the to Coda "ball" rather than how it was done here.

[Fred G. Unn]

Ok, assuming I am correct in my above post about the "et poi la Coda" indication, I would much prefer seeing the standard indication that the performer will be used to. I would maybe make a note somewhere mentioning what the historical indication was in the piece originally. Here's probably how I would engrave it, just in case you want another option

Elegy Sample.pdf

(50.9 KiB) Downloaded 879 times

[Knut]

Except for the winged repeats, I much prefer Fred's version, including the standardized D.C. al Coda indication (unless I'm missing the point of the original entirely).

Nice work!

[Fred G. Unn]

Except for the winged repeats, I much prefer Fred's version, including the standardized D.C. al Coda indication (unless I'm missing the point of the original entirely).

Nice work!

Thanks Knut! I figured the winged repeats won't be very popular around here, but left them anyway since that's usually how I handle repeats. While maybe not as visually appealing, I do think they help a performer locate the repeat more quickly, especially when a repeat is in the middle of a system like m19. Much of my work is for a fairly quick turnaround for rehearsal and live performance rather than for publication, so I often joke that I strive to make things so clear that they can be sightread by a sub on a gig with poor lighting after he's had three glasses of wine! For publication I might leave off the wings, but my typical "house style" is to leave them on.

[jrethorst]

Ok, assuming I am correct in my above post about the "et poi la Coda" indication, I would much prefer seeing the standard indication that the performer will be used to. I would maybe make a note somewhere mentioning what the historical indication was in the piece originally. Here's probably how I would engrave it, just in case you want another option
Elegy Sample.pdf

I may just not see it or be ever so slightly dumb, or more likely both, but which program did you use?

[Fred G. Unn]

I may just not see it or be ever so slightly dumb, or more likely both, but which program did you use?

That was done with Finale.