Alternative music notation systems are appealing in theory, but what about the practical need for sheet music, and the burden of transcribing (or "transnotating") music into a new notation system?[1]

One of our goals is to adapt existing music notation software so that it can display and print music in a variety of alternative notation systems. Such software will facilitate comparison, evaluation, and use of these systems, and will help address the "lack of sheet music" issue.

Several relatively recent developments have made such an approach much more feasible and promising:

• The growing amount of music available in online music libraries that can be downloaded from the internet. For example: Mutopia Project, Gutenberg Sheet Music Project, Wikifonia.
• The emergence of MusicXML as a common interchange file format for music notation.
• The increasing sophistication of music scanning software and music notation applications.
• The development of free, open-source music notation applications that are technically and legally available to modify or enhance.

For a more in-depth discussion see Open-Source Strategy. If you might be interested in providing assistance in our efforts please contact us, especially if you are a programmer.

Applications being adapted for use with chromatic-staff notations

 

Lilypond

Kevin Dalley began the work of programming additional functionality for Lilypond so that it will support chromatic staves and other features of alternative music notation systems. Mark Hanlon has also contributed to this effort. Lilypond is a free, open-source application. More...

Finale

John Keller has developed a way to use Finale with alternative notations. Finale is a commercial software package, but his method also works with Finale NotePad 2006 and 2007, which were formerly free downloads. More...

 

Other applications that could be adapted...

 

Sibelius

We have briefly looked into the possibility of creating a plug-in for Sibelius that would provide support for chromatic staves. More...

MuseScore

MuseScore is a free, open-source, cross-platform music notation editing application with a graphical user interface. It offers export to Lilypond. 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. However, MuseScore does support plug-ins, which opens up more possibilities.

Canorus

Canorus is also a free, open-source, cross-platform music notation editing application with a graphical user interface. It provides import from, and export to, Lilypond.

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.