MuseScore

MuseScore
MuseScore 2.0 in full screen, showing palettes, inpector, and piano keyboard
MuseScore 2.0 on Linux
Original author(s) Werner Schweer
Developer(s) Werner Schweer, Nicolas Froment, Thomas Bonte, and others.
Stable release 2.0 / March 24, 2015
Development status stable
Written in C++, Qt
Operating system Microsoft Windows, Linux, Mac
Available in 48 languages
Type Scorewriter
License GNU General Public License
Website musescore.org

MuseScore is a scorewriter for Windows, OS X, and Linux. Created by Werner Schweer, it is released as free and open source software under the GNU General Public License. It has a feature set comparable to Finale and Sibelius, supporting a wide variety of file formats and input methods.

History

MuseScore was originally created as a fork of the MusE sequencer’s codebase. At that time, MusE included notation capabilities and in 2002, Werner Schweer, one of the MuSE developers, decided to remove notation support from MusE and fork the code into a stand-alone notation program.[1] Since then, MuseScore has been under constant active development.

The MuseScore.org website was created in 2008,[2] and quickly showed a rapidly rising number of MuseScore downloads. By December 2008, the download rate was up to 15,000 monthly downloads.

Version 0.9.5 was released in August 2009, which was stable enough for daily or production use, and support for Mac OS X was added.[3] By October 2009, MuseScore had been downloaded more than 1000 times per day.[4] By the fourth quarter of 2010, the number of MuseScore daily downloads had tripled.

MuseScore 1.0 was finally released in February 2011. This milestone release focused on stability rather than new features.

This was soon followed by the release of MuseScore 1.1 in July 2011, which was downloaded nearly 1 million times. This 1.1 release fixed around 60 bugs and also featured improved jazz sheet support. MuseScore Connect, a landmark feature allowing on-line community interaction and publishing, was also included in this release.

In March 2012, MuseScore 1.2 was released.[5] This version included over 100 bug fixes, improved MusicXML importing and exporting, as well as improved support for special characters.

A small update containing mostly bug fixes was released as MuseScore 1.3 in February 2013.

In March 2015, MuseScore 2.0 was released, with many new features.[6]


Version history

There is no specific release schedule for MuseScore, but new versions are released when the developers consider them ready.

Features

MuseScore’s main purpose is the creation, editing and printing of various types of musical scores in a “What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get” environment.[11] It supports most types of notation, including jazz lead sheets, and prints or exports high quality engraved sheets. MuseScore’s notation engine conforms to industry notation standards.

Notation may be played back by the user through the built-in sequencer and sample library.[12] Other sample libraries in the SoundFont format can also be installed by the user. Chorus, reverb and other effects are also supported during playback.[13]

MuseScore natively supports linked parts and part extraction, MIDI input, unlimited staffs, percussion notation, cross-staff beaming, lyrics and multiple verses.[14] The functionality of MuseScore can be further extended by making use of its plugin system.

Scores may be exported from MuseScore to many different file types, including WAV files - this preserves as much subtlety (dynamics etc.) as the program is able to communicate. The result is a standard stereo WAV file which can be burned to a CD for presentation purposes without further processing.[15] This is a feature not found in Sibelius and one of the reasons why MuseScore has become a popular choice for educational establishments who wish students' works immediately to be accessible, even to non-musicians, (and the student) as the student/composer progresses (see Adoption, below). MuseScore can therefore be used to produce musical effects for presentation (such as backing tapes), even though in theory the application is only a compositional tool.

Supported file formats

MuseScore can import MusicXML, MIDI, Band-in-a-Box, Guitar Pro, capella (in the cap3 format, not CapXML) and Overture formats, as well as its own MuseScore Format and Compressed MuseScore Format.[16] It can export to MusicXML and MIDI file formats. Audio can be exported to WAV, FLAC, MP3, and OGG files, and engraved output can be exported to PDF, SVG, PNG, and PostScript formats, or it can be printed directly.[17]

Although MuseScore cannot natively import Sibelius and Finale file formats, its support of MusicXML enables sharing between the different programs.

Online publishing

The MuseScore Connect feature allows musicians to publish and share their music on-line.[18] MuseScore.com allows paying subscribers to share their scores created in MuseScore through this feature. Free accounts are also available, but users are limited to 5 scores.[19] MuseScore Connect is a default feature in MuseScore.

MuseScore.com allows playback of a score in any browser supporting the HTML5 audio tag. A score can also be linked to an on-line video, so that one may follow the sheet music while watching a video featuring that score.

Mobile Player

Since May 2014 MuseScore has mobile apps available for iOS and Android which tie into the MuseScore score sharing site.[20] With features such as note playback, tempo change, transposition, part mixing, the app is aimed to support the music learning process.

Portable Version

MuseScore also runs as a portable application. It can be stored on a removable storage device such as a CD, USB flash drive, flash card, or floppy disk, so that it can be run on any compatible computer system.

Development

MuseScore is free and open-source and is written mainly in C++. The development of MuseScore takes place on GitHub. Werner Schweer, Nicolas Froment and Thomas Bonte[21] are the full-time and lead developers of the project, with a wider community also contributing. MuseScore supports both 32-bit and 64-bit platforms, and the graphical user interface makes use of the cross-platform Qt toolkit.

Adoption

The large number of daily downloads points to a high level of adoption by individual users. Many Linux distributions also include MuseScore in their software libraries,[22] such as in the Ubuntu Software Center. MuseScore was also included in the VALO-CD collection, which provides free software for Windows.[23]

Many educational institutions also make use of MuseScore, including Drew University and the Ionian University.[24] The Board of Education of La Seigneurie des Milles-îles in Canada has also made MuseScore available on 10,000 computers across schools in the Milles-îles region in Quebec.[25]

MuseScore and the Goldberg Variations

In 2011, a project was launched to create high-quality print and audio versions of the Goldberg Variations.[26] The process influenced further development of MuseScore, with the addition of new features required for a high quality score of the variations.[27] The resulting enhancements to the software were released with version 2.0.

A Kickstarter campaign was launched and the fundraising goal was met. MuseScore developers and musician Kimiko Ishizaka collaborated to create both an engraved score and an audio recording.[28] The final engraved score was created entirely in MuseScore and can be downloaded free of charge.[29]

In 2013, was launched the project produce a Braille edition of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, making music notation more accessible to blind and visually impaired musicians. The Open Goldberg Variations score in braille format are already available.[30]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Dave Phillips, "At the Sounding Edge: Music Notation Software, the Final Installment," Linux Journal (6 April 2006).
  2. ↑ Bonte, Thomas. "The State of MuseScore". Retrieved 23 August 2012.
  3. ↑ Bolton, David. "New Features MuseScore 0.9.6". Retrieved 23 August 2012.
  4. ↑ SourceForge, "MuseScore Project download statistics"
  5. ↑ "MuseScore 1.2 is released". Retrieved 23 August 2012.
  6. ↑ "MuseScore 2.0 released". musescore.org. Retrieved 24 March 2015.
  7. ↑ http://musescore.org/en/node/6010
  8. ↑ http://musescore.org/en/musescore-1.2
  9. ↑ "MuseScore 1.2 is released". Retrieved 23 August 2012.
  10. ↑ "Release notes for MuseScore 2.0".
  11. ↑ "MuseScore". Retrieved 23 August 2012.
  12. ↑ "SoundFont". Retrieved 23 August 2012.
  13. ↑ "Change and adjust sounds". Retrieved 23 August 2012.
  14. ↑ "Features". Retrieved 23 August 2012.
  15. ↑ "Plugins". Retrieved 23 August 2012.
  16. ↑ "File Format". Retrieved 24 March 2015.
  17. ↑ "MuseScore, Free music notation & composition software". SourceForge. Retrieved on 24th November 2014.|
  18. ↑ "Share scores online". Retrieved 23 August 2012.
  19. ↑ "Help". Retrieved 23 August 2012.
  20. ↑ "MuseScore app available for download". Retrieved 8 September 2014.
  21. ↑ "MuseScore user & developer meetup at FOSDEM 2010". Retrieved 23 August 2012.
  22. ↑ "Download".
  23. ↑ "Musescore". Retrieved 23 August 2012.
  24. ↑ "Schools & Universities using MuseScore". MuseScore. Retrieved 23 August 2012.
  25. ↑ Bonte, Thomas. "MuseScore installed on 10,000 computers in Quebec". Retrieved 23 August 2012.
  26. ↑ Douglass, Robert. "Open Goldberg Variations - Setting Bach Free". Retrieved 23 August 2012.
  27. ↑ Open Goldberg Variations: mission accomplished
  28. ↑ Edition 2012 by GRIN, Printing and Binding: Books on Demand GmbH, Norderstedt, Germany
  29. ↑ "Open Goldberg Variations".
  30. ↑ "Open Goldberg Variations Braille edition".

External links