Software
Making it easier to create sheet music for alternative music notation systems.
Alternative music notation systems are appealing in theory, but what about the practical need for sheet music?[1] Fortunately, there are now software applications that can display and print music in a variety of chromatic-staff notation systems, easing the burden of transcribing (or "transnotating") sheet music.
Applications with good support for chromatic-staff notation systems
LilyPond LilyPond is a free, open-source, cross-platform, highly customizable application that can be used to create sheet music for chromatic-staff notation systems. More info...
Finale John Keller has developed a way to use Finale with alternative notation systems. Finale is a commercial software package, but his method also works with Finale NotePad 2006 and 2007, which were formerly free downloads. More info...
Both of these applications allow you to customize the position of the notes on the staff, and make other relevant customizations. Using either of them you can:
- Create musical scores in an alternative notation system "from scratch" by inputting the notes using your mouse, keyboard, or MIDI device.
- Automatically transnotate existing digital music notation files, like the growing number of sheet music files available for download from online libraries. (For example: Mutopia Project, Gutenberg Sheet Music Project, Wikifonia. Converting these files from one type to another is now much easier thanks to MusicXML, an interchange file format for music notation.)
- Use music scanning software to scan and convert sheet music into a digital file format and then transnotate it into an alternative notation system.
One of our long-term goals has been to adapt or extend existing software to display and print music in a variety of alternative notation systems. (For an in-depth discussion see Open-Source Strategy.) Thanks to the efforts of a number of people this has now become a reality. It is now much easier to use, evaluate, and compare different alternative music notation systems, and the "lack of sheet music" problem is not nearly as daunting as it was just a few years ago. However, there is still room for improvement, so if you might be interested in helping out with our efforts in this area please contact us.
Applications with minimal support for alternative notation systems
MuseScore MuseScore is a free, open-source, cross-platform music notation editing application with a graphical user interface. It offers import and export to and from MusicXML and it supports plug-ins. Jan Braunstein has used MuseScore to create sheet music for his Chromatic Lyre Notation, but the process is not automated and is more of a workaround than a full solution (since MuseScore does not offer the ability to customize the positions of notes on the staff). More info...
Applications that could potentially be used with alternative notation systems
Sibelius We briefly looked into the possibility of creating a plug-in for Sibelius that would provide support for chromatic staff notation systems. More info...
Canorus Canorus is a free, open-source, cross-platform music notation editing application with a graphical user interface. It offers import from and export to the LilyPond file format.
Notation Composer Notation Composer is a commercial application for Windows. Its author has communicated to us that he would be willing to consider working with a programmer who was interested in adding plug-in support for chromatic staves to it.
Software libraries and APIs that could be used...
Note that these are not stand-alone notation editor applications like the others on this page...
Belle, Bonne, Sage Belle, Bonne, Sage is a free, open-source, C++ vector-graphics library for music notation. It makes no assumptions about the graphical layout of music notation. This gives it a built-in flexibility that makes it well-suited for alternative forms of music notation.
VexFlow VexFlow is an open-source, web-based, JavaScript library for rendering traditional music notation and guitar tablature. It uses/supports HTML5 Canvas and SVG, and can display music notation in a web browser (ie: on a web page or in a web application).
Applications other parties have created for alternative notation systems
Our efforts work towards permitting the transnotation of music into a wide variety of chromatic-staff notation systems. The following applications each work with a specific alternative notation system, and were developed independently from the Music Notation Project.
KlavarScript KlavarScript is an application for Klavar notation. It runs on Windows and is available as a free download. The December 2005 version imports both MIDI and MusicXML files.
Klavar Music Writer Klavar Music Writer (originally called KlavarWriterXP) is a more recent application for Klavar notation. Its features include the ability to input music through a MIDI keyboard. It runs on Windows and is available as a free download from the Klavar Music Foundation of Great Britain.
KLAVAR! KLAVAR! is an open source graphic music sequencer/notation program for Klavar notation that is now being ported to Windows, Mac, and Linux. Work on it seems to have begun in August 2009. It can be downloaded for free from Sourceforge. It was originally connected to the KlavarScore website, but this seems to have changed as the links to it have been removed.
Ambrose Piano Tabs Music Editing Program This program for Ambrose Piano Tabs notation is free to download and use for noncommercial purposes. It can read MIDI files and supports editing and playback. It is closed-source and presumably runs only on Windows (no system requirements are listed on their website). See the lessons page and installation package page to download it.
NoteWriter-AB Albert Brennink created NoteWriter-AB (scroll to the bottom of the page), an application for his A-B Chromatic Notation. It is an extended version of the NoteWriter II® software for Apple Macintosh computers, and sells for $295. At this point it is "legacy" software, as it only runs in Mac OS 9 or the Classic environment of OS X for PowerPC Macs, and will not run on Intel Macs at all.
[1] Most alternative notation systems do not have large catalogues of sheet music available for them. An exception is Klavar. The Klavar-Foundation in the Netherlands offers over 25,000 scores and music books, totalling an estimated 200,000 musical works, from childrens songs, to Bach, to Rachmaninov. The Klavar Music Foundation of Great Britain also has an extensive catalogue. The Chroma Institute sells music for Albert Brennink's A-B Chromatic Notation.