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From: andy@oda.icl.stc.co.uk (Andy Spiceley)
Newsgroups: comp.music
Subject: Notation programs for composers, not publishers
Message-ID: <9101101019.AA05528@oda.icl.stc.co.uk>
Date: 10 Jan 91 10:19:47 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Lines: 79


Much has been asked and written about score editing and typesetting 
programs over recent months.  I have collected magazine reviews and many
postings but since I still have questions perhaps you'll all forgive a further
enquiry.  The recent mention of Personal Composer 3.3 on the net and the review
of it in CMJ prompt me to add my tuppennyworth.

Most reviews and comments I have seen relate to the ability of the various
programs to typeset music, that is, to act as a DTP system for music. Few
have addressed the problem of using these programs as music processors in the
sense of (analagous to) _word_ processors: that is, programs which help the 
composer sketch out, edit, amend, expand etc, and _then_ format for printing.

I have in mind the ability to edit comprehensively: implying the ability
to "lassoo" arbitrary size chunks of music for transposition, cut/paste within 
and _between_ files, merge lines, change the rhythmic notation (e.g. turn bars 
of 9/8 to bars of 3/4 triplets [not 1.5 bars of 3.4!] and back, or rebar in 
different numbers of beats, half or double - or by some other factor multiply -
 the time values), vary the number of parts at arbitrary points, for later 
assignment to different instruments, and so on.  When composing I often change 
my mind about the munber of beats in a particular bar, or which line may include
 certain notes; how to notate the rhythm, the relative density of different 
lines, and other factors which drastically affect the layout.  
Sketching this on paper usually results in unreadable manuscript which takes 
ages to prepare as neat copy.  

Of course there are many other things a sketching
composer would find useful but would remain very much a minority feature:
for example the ability to invert an arbitrary amount of music around a
given vertical pitch point, to handle rhythmic patterns independently from
pitch sets and apply one to t'other, to separate out a pitch set or rhythmic
series from a portion of (linear) music, to produce the retrograde of a pitch
or rhythmic series and so on.  I haven't heard of any commercially available 
software which helps in any of these semi-mechanical procedures that any sort of
composition based on serial or isorhythmic techniques. I know that as a group, 
composers of this sort of music don't form a big market, but such features would
surely be easy to include in a "serious" music processor.

From the articles I have read I get the impression that some programs which
have powerful and comprehensive typesetting capability have serious limitations 
with editing (is it true that SCORE really requires you to have the music i
complete before you start to enter it?), whilst others, whose printer output is 
less good, are better suited to sketching and writing music.

I'd be very grateful to hear from anyone who has had any experience with 
trying to use the major contenders (eg SCORE, FINALE, Personal Composer etc)
as composers music editing tools, rather than for typesetting completed music.

My only experience so far has been with Notator (v 2.0), which is (IMHO) utterly
useless as a notation program for anything except very simple pop songs in 4/4.
I did obtain a demo copy of Finale from the UK magazine SoundOnSound but 
without the manual it's difficult to assess!

Of course, there remains the possibility that a usable composers music processor
has yet to be written.  Any volunteers?  I'd be very happy to supply a list of
"must haves"!

It occurs to me - as it must have to many others - that we badly need 
a standard for the internal representation of music events that would enable the
interchange of scores between different programs for editing, layout/printing, 
etc.  MIDI is (obviously?) not that standard.  I am aware of the various ASCII
based encodings such as DARMS, and the work in ANSI on the SGML/HyTime based
system; presumably other research is going on at IRCAM, Tempo Reale (Berio's
institute in Florence if I got the name right!) and elsewhere. Can anyone reporton progress and any attempts to build conversion software(!!!!!) between the 
different encodings?  (Can't be much different from the problem of document 
converters between WordPerfect/Ventura/MSWord, can it? :-)  Actually my guess
is that it's about an order of magnitude or more worse! :-(

Apologies for the length of this enquiry: I'll shut up now! 

===============================================================================
Andy Spiceley		| No pic or joke- just a Gratuitous Advertisement:
ODA Project		| QUORUM presents new British and Italian music
ICL Bracknell		| Purcell Room (South Bank Centre, London)
andy@oda.icl.stc.co.uk	| February 19th 1991 8pm
+44 344 424842 x2616	| Includes first performances of commissioned
			| works by Franco Donatoni, Ian Gardiner
(and Andy Spiceley, if I can get it finished and _copied_(!) in time.)
===============================================================================