Software for Alternative Music Notations
However appealing alternative music notations are in theory, they do raise some practical issues. Foremost among them is the lack of music available for nearly all* of these notations, and the burden of transcribing or "transnotating" music from standard notation into a different notation system.
The AMNP has been working on adapting existing music notation software so that it can display and print music in various alternative music notations. By automating the transnotation process, such software will greatly facilitate comparison, evaluation, and use of alternative notation systems. It will also go a long way towards addressing the basic "lack of sheet music" issue.
Efforts have already lead to two software applications being modified or utilized for use with alternative music notations:
John Keller has developed a way to use Finale with alternative notations. It is a commercial software package, but his method also works with the free Finale NotePad. More...
Kevin Dalley is programming additional functionality into Lilypond so that it will work with alternative music notations. Lilypond is a free, open-source application. More...
Sibelius (?)
Can Sibelius be used with alternative music notations that have a chromatic staff? We would be interested to know if this is possible. If it can be done with Finale, perhaps it can be done with Sibelius as well. Please contact us if you know the answer or are interested in trying to make it work.
Several relatively recent developments have made such software solutions much more feasible and promising:
- The emergence of MusicXML
as a common interchange file format for music notation.
- The growth in the amount of music available in online music libraries
that can be downloaded from the internet. For example: Mutopia
Project, Gutenberg
Sheet Music Project
- The increasing sophistication of both music scanning software and the music notation applications themselves.
For a more in-depth discussion see An Open-Source Software Strategy.
If you are interested in providing assistance in our efforts to develop transnotation software applications (especially if you are a computer programmer) please contact us.
These are two additional applications that work with alternative music notations:
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.
NoteWriter-AB
Albert Brennink sells NoteWriter-AB (scroll to the bottom of the page) for $295, an application for his A-B Chromatic Notation. It is an extended version of the NoteWriter II® software for Apple Macintosh computers. 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).
* The big exception is Klavar. The catalogue of the Klavar-Foundation in the Netherlands contains 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.