RE: [Sheflug] Music Notation Software

[(Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding [at] xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 27-Jul-05 zoebutler [at] tiscali.co.uk wrote:
> Hi there,
> 
> does anyone know of any Linux software that writes and plays musical
> notation - like Sibelius for example. I don't expect it to be as good
> as Sibelius. I just wondered if anyone had come across anything like
> that.
> I use Midisoft Desktop SheetMusic. It's nothing like as good as
> Sibelius.
> I would be happy to replace it with something that ran under Linux even
> if it wasn't as 'user friendly'. 

As well as the suggestions already made, I would also add

  MUP (Music publisher)
  http://www.arkkra.com

This is another non-GUI program. You prepare a text file specification
of the music (the language is very terse and takes a bit of learning),
and you get PostScript output directly. You can also getMIDI output.

The program has a lot of built-in musical expertise (structural and
notational), so the specification mainly consists of setting key
signatures, staves and the like, and typing in the names of notes
and their durations and combinations, and preferences for layout;
the program does the rest by default, though you can over-ride it.

The PS output is excellent.

The main issue for some people may be that it is shareware ($29 for
a "liberated" copy), but that's a one-off and you get upgrades for
ever thereafter (I paid mine about 10 years ago and have had a free
ride since). Support via a miling list it also good. I reckon it was
well worth it.

If anyone would like to see an example or two I can email them
as attachents.

In a similar spirit to MUP ("description interpreter") is MusiXTeX
and related software:

  http://icking-music-archive.org/software/indexmt6.html

MusiXTeX is a set of macros for TeX. Note that Rosegarden (already
mentioned) can output a MusiXTeX file.

Best wishes to all,
Ted.


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Date: 29-Jul-05                                       Time: 13:37:10
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