SCORE is a
scorewriter
A scorewriter, or music notation program is software for creating, editing and printing sheet music. A scorewriter is to music notation what a word processor is to text, in that they typically provide flexible editing and automatic layout, and pr ...
program, written in
FORTRAN for
MS-DOS
MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few ope ...
by
Stanford University
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
Professor
Leland Smith
Leland Clayton Smith (August 6, 1925 – December 17, 2013) was an American musician, teacher and computer scientist. He taught at Stanford University for 34 years, and developed the music engraving tool SCORE.
Career
Smith was born in Oaklan ...
(1925–2013) with a reputation for producing very high-quality results.
It was widely used in
engraving
Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a Burin (engraving), burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or Glass engraving, glass ...
during the 1980s and 1990s and continues to have a small, dedicated following of engravers, many of whom hold the program in high regard due to its ability to position symbols precisely on the page. Several publications set using SCORE have earned Paul Revere and German Musikpresse engraving awards.
Program development
Mainframe origins
The first incarnation of SCORE was written by
Leland Smith
Leland Clayton Smith (August 6, 1925 – December 17, 2013) was an American musician, teacher and computer scientist. He taught at Stanford University for 34 years, and developed the music engraving tool SCORE.
Career
Smith was born in Oaklan ...
in 1967 as a means of entering music into the MUSIC V sound generating system running on the
PDP-10
Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC)'s PDP-10, later marketed as the DECsystem-10, is a mainframe computer family manufactured beginning in 1966 and discontinued in 1983. 1970s models and beyond were marketed under the DECsystem-10 name, especi ...
mainframe computers at the
Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
Stanford University has many centers and institutes dedicated to the study of various specific topics. These centers and institutes may be within a department, within a school but across departments, an independent laboratory, institute or center ...
(SAIL).
The core concept of SCORE was to break music into a set of items ('objects' in modern terminology) with parameters that describe their characteristics. In this example of an early SCORE routine the beginnings of the parameter system (P2, P3 etc.) can be seen:
BUZZ;
P2 RHY/4/2/8//REP 3,2//;
DF 1000.2;
P3 NOTES/P C4/B/C/O B3/C/FINE;
P4 LIT/P3%2/!-52;
P5 .2 10,100 .4 200,210 .2 1,1;
P6 -9999.5;
P7 1000;
P8 FU/1/2//;
END;
As
vector graphics
Vector graphics is a form of computer graphics in which visual images are created directly from geometric shapes defined on a Cartesian plane, such as points, lines, curves and polygons. The associated mechanisms may include vector display a ...
terminals became available in the early 1970s, the parametric approach to describing musical information that had been designed for MUSIC V was adapted by Smith into a program he called MSS (the standard abbreviation for
manuscript
A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printing, printed or repr ...
s) for printing musical scores. The
graphics plotters used for output were not able to plot curves so MSS did not use music
font
In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a typeface. Each font is a matched set of type, with a piece (a "sort") for each glyph. A typeface consists of a range of such fonts that shared an overall design.
In mod ...
s as they are understood today, instead using user-editable symbol libraries based on
polygon
In geometry, a polygon () is a plane figure that is described by a finite number of straight line segments connected to form a closed ''polygonal chain'' (or ''polygonal circuit''). The bounded plane region, the bounding circuit, or the two toge ...
s, and text was generated from an internal character set.
The first printing of a complete musical work set entirely by computer was of Smith's ''Six Bagatelles for Piano'' which appeared in December 1971, printed at 100
dpi
A Daytona Prototype International (DPi) was a type of sports prototype racing car developed specifically for the International Motor Sports Association's WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, as their top class of car, acting as a direct replacemen ...
on a
CalComp plotter
Calcomp plotters (sometimes referred to as CalComp plotters) were the best known products of the California Computer Products company ( Calcomp or CalComp).
Overview
The Calcomp 565 drum plotter, introduced in 1959, was one of the first compute ...
and reduced by a factor of five for printing at 8.5"x11".
[ Smith's ''Woodwind Trio'' was published using this system in 1973 and Richard Swift, reviewing it for '']Notes
Note, notes, or NOTE may refer to:
Music and entertainment
* Musical note, a pitched sound (or a symbol for a sound) in music
* Notes (album), ''Notes'' (album), a 1987 album by Paul Bley and Paul Motian
* ''Notes'', a common (yet unofficial) sho ...
'', drew attention to the 'admirable clarity and ease of reading for performer and score reader, easily equivalent to the finest examples of contemporary music printing by other means. This new process claims the serious attention of commercial music publishers for its fine qualities, not the least of which is ease and cheapness of production.'
The first book about music typeset entirely by computer to be published was his ''Handbook of Harmonic Analysis'' in 1979, created on the PDP-10 computer at SAIL using the PUB typesetting program in conjunction with MSS. The printing was done at double size on a Varian Data Machines
Varian Data Machines was a division of Varian Associates which sold minicomputers. It entered the market in 1967 through acquisition of Decision Control Inc. (DCI) in Newport Beach, California. It met stiff competition and was bought by Sperry Corp ...
Statos electrostatic plotter An electrostatic plotter is a type of plotter that draws images on paper with an electrostatic process. They are most frequently used for Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE), producing raster images via either a Liquid Toner or a Dry Toner model.
Li ...
and then optically reduced by a factor of two for lithographic printing
Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German au ...
.
From its creation until 1985, all development of MSS was either done on the PDP-10 computers at Stanford or during residencies at IRCAM
IRCAM (French: ''Ircam, '', English: Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics/Music) is a French institute dedicated to the research of music and sound, especially in the fields of avant garde and electro-acoustical art music. It is ...
in the Pompidou Centre
The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou ( en, National Georges Pompidou Centre of Art and Culture), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English, is a complex building in the Beaubourg area of ...
, Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
.[
]
Commercial development
Between 1985 and 1986 MSS was ported
In software engineering, porting is the process of adapting software for the purpose of achieving some form of execution in a computing environment that is different from the one that a given program (meant for such execution) was originally desi ...
to the Tandy 2000
The Tandy 2000 is a personal computer introduced by Radio Shack in September 1983 based on the 8 MHz Intel 80186 microprocessor running MS-DOS. By comparison, the IBM PC XT (introduced in March 1983) used the older 4.77 MHz Intel 8088 pr ...
running MS-DOS
MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few ope ...
under its earlier name of SCORE. Since personal computers
A personal computer (PC) is a multi-purpose microcomputer whose size, capabilities, and price make it feasible for individual use. Personal computers are intended to be operated directly by an end user, rather than by a computer expert or techn ...
of the time had limited memory (usually around 640KB), SCORE was limited to 32 staves and 1420 items per file. In order to handle complex or lengthy works, users had to work on small portions of the score at any one time, naming their files sequentially. These were then laid out and tiled together before being sent to the printer. In order to save memory further on graphics operations, notation was displayed in 'stick figure' characters and symbols (see first screenshot in ''Editing music graphically/numerically''), which showed exactly the boundaries of the notation but lacked fine detail. There was an option to display the true symbols provided there was enough memory remaining to accommodate them (see Pass 2 screenshot in ''Entering music symbolically'').
SCORE version 1 was released in 1987 by Passport Designs
Passport Designs Inc. was a software company that created early music production software, such as the pre-MIDI SoundChaser in 1982. Other programs included Master Tracks Pro and Encore.
History Founding and early years
The company was founded i ...
and updated to version 2 in August 1988. The German music publisher Schott Music
Schott Music () is one of the oldest German music publishers. It is also one of the largest music publishing houses in Europe, and is the second oldest music publisher after Breitkopf & Härtel. The company headquarters of Schott Music were fou ...
began using SCORE in 1988 and their in-house engraving typefaces became the basis for SCORE's symbol library. Version 2 also introduced the use of PostScript Type 1 fonts for page text.
In 1988, Passport Designs sent their programmer Perry Devine to work with Smith to make the program more user-friendly. They also hired professional engraver William Holab (music editor at G. Schirmer, Inc.
G. Schirmer, Inc. is an American classical music publishing company based in New York City, founded in 1861. The oldest active music publisher in the United States, Schirmer publishes sheet music for sale and rental, and represents some well-know ...
) to rewrite the manuals, resulting in the release of version 3.0 in 1990.
The SCORE music publishing system is made up of the main program, SCORE, and these associated utilities:
* JUST, which aligns and justifies large scores with more than 32 staves per system
* PAGE, which handles part extraction, and layout for multiple pages of music simultaneously
* SPRINT, which sends typeset pages to PostScript
PostScript (PS) is a page description language in the electronic publishing and desktop publishing realm. It is a dynamically typed, concatenative programming language. It was created at Adobe Systems by John Warnock, Charles Geschke, Doug Br ...
printers or creates an EPS
EPS, EPs or Eps may refer to:
Commerce and finance
* Earnings per share
* Electronic Payment Services, in Hong Kong, Macau, and Shenzhen, China
* Express Payment System, in the Philippines
Education
* Edmonton Public Schools, in Edmonton, Al ...
file
* DRAW, which draws symbols for inclusion in the main (CODE 9) or user-defined (CODE 11) libraries
ESCORT and SCOREINPUT were sold separately and allowed MIDI input from MIDI file and MIDI keyboard, respectively.
Ties with Passport Designs were severed in 1991, and all subsequent versions were distributed and sold by Smith's company, San Andreas Press.
Version 3.10 was released in 1993 and replaced SPRINT with SCORLAS and SCORDOT, which sent output to laser
A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. The word "laser" is an acronym for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation". The fir ...
and dot matrix printers
A dot matrix printer is an impact printer that prints using a fixed number of pins or wires. Typically the pins or wires are arranged in one or several vertical columns. The pins strike an ink-coated ribbon and force contact between the ribbon ...
.
Version 3.11 was released in May 1994, and replaced ESCORT and SCOREINPUT with MIDISCOR and MIDISCOREWRITE. It was the last increment of version 3 and is still used commercially today as it is considered by some to be the most mature and stable version that was released.
The FinalScore utility was released in 1996, which converted PostScript output from the Finale
Finale may refer to:
Pieces of music
* Finale (music), the last movement of a piece
* ''Finale'' (album), a 1977 album by Loggins and Messina
* "Finale B", a 1996 song from the rock opera ''Rent''
* "Finale", a song by Anthrax from ''State of Eu ...
programme into a standard SCORE file, however this became obsolete when Finale 2004 changed the way in which EPS files were created.
Version 4.0 (known as SCOR4) was released in May 1998, and included automatic lute and guitar tablature
Tablature (or tabulature, or tab for short) is a form of musical notation indicating instrument fingering rather than musical pitches.
Tablature is common for fretted stringed instruments such as the guitar, lute or vihuela, as well as many fr ...
systems, MIDI
MIDI (; Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a technical standard that describes a communications protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, computers, and re ...
playback, group editing of items, a conditional editor, various user interface improvements relating to file access, and further mouse support. Many changes were introduced to make the program more accessible to new users, often making the program more cumbersome for existing professional users in the process - which is one of the reasons version 3 is still so highly regarded.
The last minor update, version 4.01, was released on October 16, 2001, although a special version called SCORLAP was released in May 2002 which addressed graphics redraw problems arising with some laptops.
WinScore, the Microsoft Windows
Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...
version, was released to beta
Beta (, ; uppercase , lowercase , or cursive ; grc, βῆτα, bē̂ta or ell, βήτα, víta) is the second letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 2. In Modern Greek, it represents the voiced labiod ...
in March 2009 as version 5.00. Improvements included increasing the possible number of staves on pages, removing the limits on items and vectors per page, a WYSIWYG
In computing, WYSIWYG ( ), an acronym for What You See Is What You Get, is a system in which editing software allows content to be edited in a form that resembles its appearance when printed or displayed as a finished product, such as a printed d ...
interface, use of colour, native MIDI input and playback, extending the number of parameters per item to 36, and integrating all previous SCORE utilities (PAGE, JUST, DRAW, SCORLAS) into the main program. WinScore suffered from memory leak
In computer science, a memory leak is a type of resource leak that occurs when a computer program incorrectly manages memory allocations in a way that Computer memory, memory which is no longer needed is not released. A memory leak may also happe ...
s and other bugs which prevented its adoption by many users, and despite officially being released on December 8, 2012, it was still effectively in beta development at the time of its last update to 5.01 on November 1, 2013, six weeks before Smith's death.
The basis of SCORE was written in FORTRAN with all the mouse and graphics routines written in Intel
Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 seri ...
assembly language
In computer programming, assembly language (or assembler language, or symbolic machine code), often referred to simply as Assembly and commonly abbreviated as ASM or asm, is any low-level programming language with a very strong correspondence be ...
. WinScore was created using a combination of Visual C++
Microsoft Visual C++ (MSVC) is a compiler for the C, C++ and C++/CX programming languages by Microsoft. MSVC is proprietary software; it was originally a standalone product but later became a part of Visual Studio and made available in both tria ...
and 32-bit DEC FORTRAN.
After Smith's death
Following Smith's death on December 17, 2013, both SCORE and WinScore are no longer sold and the website registrations have lapsed. At the beginning of 2021 Adobe Inc.
Adobe Inc. ( ), originally called Adobe Systems Incorporated, is an American multinational computer software company incorporated in Delaware
and headquartered in San Jose, California. It has historically specialized in software for the crea ...
announced that support for Type 1 PostScript fonts would end in January 2023.
Pricing
On release in 1987, SCORE version 1 cost , version 2 in 1988 was , version 3 in 1991 was , version 4 in 1999 was , and WinScore, in 2013, was .
In 1990 it cost to update from an earlier version to version 3.
In 1999 it cost to update from 3.11 to 4.0.
In 2013 to update to WinScore from version 3 cost , and from version 4, .
Product reviews
Version 1 was announced in the press at the beginning of 1987 with an expected release date of April that year, and a predicted price tag of $500. Its release was noted in the ''Computer Music Journal
''Computer Music Journal'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal that covers a wide range of topics related to digital audio signal processing and electroacoustic music. It is published on-line and in hard copy by MIT Press. The journal is accompa ...
'' issue of winter 1987.
Version 1.1 was reviewed by ''Computer Music Journal'' in autumn 1988. DRAW was not yet available, but had been promised. A later reviewer was told by technical support that making the DRAW programme available to users was an afterthought. On-screen help was described as 'awkward and unenlightening', but the software 'rewards determined effort to climb the learning curve with powerful abilities'. 'For routine music printing, it is probably more expensive, more complicated, and less accommodating than some of its competitors, but Score is more powerful than any of them.'
Writing for ''Electronic Musician
''Electronic Musician'' is a monthly magazine published by Future US featuring articles on synthesizers, music production and electronic musicians.
History and profile
''Electronic Musician'' began as ''Polyphony'' magazine in 1975, publis ...
'', Carter Scholz
Carter Scholz (né Robert Carter Scholz; born 1953) is an American speculative fiction author and composer of music. He lives in California.
Biography
Scholz grew up in Tenafly, New Jersey and graduated from Tenafly High School in 1971. He als ...
found the interface of version 2.0 'opaque and maddening' though concluded SCORE was an 'amazing' 'power tool' which 'sets a new standard' for professionals for whom ease of use would be less important than the results which could be obtained. A math coprocessor
Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...
was considered essential to prevent the program response being sluggish when handling the floating-point arithmetic
In computing, floating-point arithmetic (FP) is arithmetic that represents real numbers approximately, using an integer with a fixed precision, called the significand, scaled by an integer exponent of a fixed base. For example, 12.345 can be ...
for screen operations.
''Keyboard'''s Jim Aikin
James Douglas Aikin (born 1948) is an American science fiction writer based in Livermore, California. He is also a music technology writer, an interactive fiction writer, freelance editor and writer, cellist, and teacher. He frequently writes ar ...
agreed that a considerable investment of time was required to learn the package. Scholz had three months and admitted he had only 'scratched the surface' of its capabilities. Aikin came to similar conclusions, suggesting improvements to the interface and input methods would make it more accessible.
''PC Magazine
''PC Magazine'' (shortened as ''PCMag'') is an American computer magazine published by Ziff Davis. A print edition was published from 1982 to January 2009. Publication of online editions started in late 1994 and have continued to the present d ...
'', reviewing SCORE at the end of 1988, concluded that the software was aimed at accomplished musicians who were prepared to put in the time to learn it, and that the design of the program and manual were thorough and clear. Three years later the same magazine described the program as having 'ushered in the era of true desktop music publishing' allowing musicians to turn out 'engraver-quality printed music of any complexity', but still admitting that it had a 'ruthlessly difficult interface', a 'confusing amalgam of command line and function keys' which 'never fully made the transition from the mainframe computers' where it originated. Editing music once entered was 'cumbersome and daunting' and the poor documentation made the program even more inaccessible.
Reviewing version 2.10 in March 1990 for ''Notes'', Garrett Bowles noted that SCORE surpassed any of the other contemporary notation programmes (The Copyist III, DynaDuet, MusicPrinter Plus, The Note Processor, Personal Composer System, and Theme, the Music Editor) on notational complexity, text handling, part extraction, page layout, and spacing of items on the staff. On-screen help was now 'excellent', as were the extensive manuals (although some discussions of operations were considered 'too detailed').
Karl Signell, writing in spring 1991, observed that version 3 had the most 'ungraceful, counter-intuitive interface', but noted that it was faster than other programmes (including Finale
Finale may refer to:
Pieces of music
* Finale (music), the last movement of a piece
* ''Finale'' (album), a 1977 album by Loggins and Messina
* "Finale B", a 1996 song from the rock opera ''Rent''
* "Finale", a song by Anthrax from ''State of Eu ...
, Music Writer, NoteWriter and Professional Composer) as well as producing one of the most professional looking scores.[
]
Program use
Entering music symbolically
Music is usually entered using text codes from a standard ASCII
ASCII ( ), abbreviated from American Standard Code for Information Interchange, is a character encoding standard for electronic communication. ASCII codes represent text in computers, telecommunications equipment, and other devices. Because of ...
keyboard (though a MIDI
MIDI (; Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a technical standard that describes a communications protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, computers, and re ...
keyboard can be used purely for note pitch entry), and several passes are required to enter all the information. After the page has been set up with appropriate staves, information is entered voice by voice as follows:
*Pass 1 defines note names (including accidentals
In music, an accidental is a note of a pitch (or pitch class) that is not a member of the scale or mode indicated by the most recently applied key signature. In musical notation, the sharp (), flat (), and natural () symbols, among others, ma ...
and staff position, but not duration), rests (not duration), clefs
A clef (from French: 'key') is a Musical notation, musical symbol used to indicate which Musical note, notes are represented by the lines and spaces on a musical staff (music), stave. Placing a clef on a stave assigns a particular pitch to ...
, measure lines, key signature
In Western musical notation, a key signature is a set of sharp (), flat (), or rarely, natural () symbols placed on the staff at the beginning of a section of music. The initial key signature in a piece is placed immediately after the clef at ...
s, time signature
The time signature (also known as meter signature, metre signature, or measure signature) is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats (pulses) are contained in each measure (bar), and which note value ...
s
*Pass 2 defines rhythm
Rhythm (from Greek , ''rhythmos'', "any regular recurring motion, symmetry") generally means a " movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions". This general meaning of regular recu ...
ic values (durations) for notes and rests
*Pass 3 defines marks: articulations, accents Accent may refer to:
Speech and language
* Accent (sociolinguistics), way of pronunciation particular to a speaker or group of speakers
* Accent (phonetics), prominence given to a particular syllable in a word, or a word in a phrase
** Pitch acce ...
, dynamics etc.
*Pass 4 defines the position of rhythmic beams
*Pass 5 defines the end points of slurs and ties TIES may refer to:
* TIES, Teacher Institute for Evolutionary Science
* TIES, The Interactive Encyclopedia System
* TIES, Time Independent Escape Sequence
* Theoretical Issues in Ergonomics Science
* The International Ecotourism Society
The Inter ...
[
For example, to create these two bars of ]Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard w ...
's Fugue in C minor, BWV 847 from Book I of the Well-Tempered Clavier
''The Well-Tempered Clavier'', BWV 846–893, consists of two sets of preludes and fugues in all 24 major and minor keys for keyboard by Johann Sebastian Bach. In the composer's time, ''clavier'', meaning keyboard, referred to a variety of in ...
:
To create the staff:
The five passes of data entry:
These show the use of the following text codes - note that '/' is a delimiter and ';' marks the end of each pass:
Pass 1
Pass 2
After pass 2, numbers are displayed above each note to assist with assigning marks, beams and slurs. The image below also illustrates the results of the 'Show' command to display the true vectors of all items, rather than the 'stick figure' symbols that are usually used.
Pass 3
Pass 4
Pass 5
Editing music graphically/numerically
Once the music has been entered using the five-stage input process described above, the musical data is converted by SCORE into the following graphical items and stored as a series of numeric parameters:
Examples of the parameters associated with these items:
Here then is the numerical representation of the BWV 847 fugue theme example. Each line represents one graphical item as a CODE number (item type) and associated numeric parameters. The second number is the staff on which the item belongs, and the third is the horizontal position of the item along the full width of the paper, with 0 representing the left margin, and 200 representing the right margin. The fourth number often contains the vertical position on the staff - the bottom line of the staff is vertical position 3, the bottom space of the staff is 4, and so on.
8 1 0 0 0 200
3 1 1.5
17 1 9.416 0 -3
18 1 19.016 0 4 4
2 1 26.516 0 1 0 0.5
1 1 34.835 8 20 0 0.25
9 1 34.835 -3 54 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -5
6 1 34.835 8 7 41.43 22
5 1 34.835 10 10 41.43 1.1093 -1
1 1 41.435 7 23 0 0.25
1 1 47.233 8 10 0 0.5 -1
6 1 47.233 7 5.5 55.55 11
1 1 55.551 5 10 0 0.5 0.5
1 1 64.122 6 20 0 0.5
6 1 64.122 6 7 78.24 21 0 0 11 72.44 78.24
1 1 72.441 8 20 0 0.25 1.33
5 1 72.441 10 10 78.24 1.1092 -1
1 1 78.239 7 20 0 0.25
1 1 84.037 8 20 0 0.5
6 1 84.037 8 9 92.36 21
1 1 92.355 9 20 0 0.5
14 1 100.842 1
1 1 104.174 5 10 0 0.5 3
6 1 104.174 8 8 119.09 11 0 0 11 112.49 119.09
1 1 112.493 8 10 0 0.25
5 1 112.493 6 4 119.09 -1.3092 -1
1 1 119.093 7 13 0 0.25 1
1 1 125.143 8 20 0 0.5
6 1 125.143 8 9 133.46 21
1 1 133.462 9 20 0 0.5
1 1 141.781 4 10 0 0.25
6 1 141.781 4 5 147.58 12
5 1 141.781 2 4 153.38 -1.5185 -1
1 1 147.578 5 10 0 0.25
1 1 153.376 6 10 0 1
1 1 165.476 5 10 0 0.25
6 1 165.476 5 4 171.27 12
5 1 165.476 2 2 171.27 -1.1092 -1
1 1 171.274 4 10 0 0.25
14 1 178.274 1
1 1 181.606 3 10 1 2 0 0 0 14
14 1 200 1 1
Unlike most music typesetting editors, understanding and manipulation of these numerical parameters are expected of SCORE users. To access the numeric parameters of items within SCORE, a user clicks on a graphical element, and a list of the parameters is displayed at the top of the editor - as shown in the first screenshot, where a slur is selected (notice the black vertical arrow above the staff at the beginning of the third bar).
SCORE was creative in packing as much information as possible into each numeric parameter. For example, Parameter 5 of CODE 1 is described as 'stem direction/accidental' but uses each place value
Positional notation (or place-value notation, or positional numeral system) usually denotes the extension to any base of the Hindu–Arabic numeral system (or decimal system). More generally, a positional system is a numeral system in which the ...
to encode a different piece of information. Note that by SCORE default, only the top note of a chord has a stem, all the other notes are stemless. So a down-stemmed sharp would have a P5 of 22. An up-stemmed flat with a left offset of 2.5 would be 11.25. A stemless natural with a right offset of 3 would be 3.93, and if it were bracketed it would be 103.93.
Here are selected examples of items from the numeric parameter data of the fugue example:
The key signature:
The time signature:
The dynamic marking ('mp'):
The rest in the first bar:
The first B natural in the first bar:
The second slur in the first bar:
The first barline:
The last note (half note, or minim):
Editing text
In version 1 PostScript text fonts were not used for printing, only the stick-figure characters used within the programme and an internal version of the Bodoni
Bodoni is the name given to the serif typefaces first designed by Giambattista Bodoni (1740–1813) in the late eighteenth century and frequently revived since. Bodoni's typefaces are classified as Didone or modern. Bodoni followed the ideas o ...
typeface, and text could only be edited by altering the ASCII codes for each character individually within the CODE16 parameters. Version 2 allowed the use of PostScript Type 1 fonts and provided a more convenient method of editing text, but unfortunately only a subset of the glyphs within the chosen font could be used by SCORE. Different fonts were selected by using an escape sequence
In computer science, an escape sequence is a combination of characters that has a meaning other than the literal characters contained therein; it is marked by one or more preceding (and possibly terminating) characters.
Examples
* In C and man ...
at the start of the text. Escape codes _00 to _34 selected the Base 35 fonts of the Adobe PostScript Level 2 font set, and codes _35 to _89 could be assigned by the user. Some characters not available on a standard keyboard were obtained by using another escape sequence, for example:
To set the text "''Fête-Dieu à Séville'' by Isaac Albéniz" in variants of Times Roman
Times New Roman is a serif typeface. It was commissioned by the British newspaper ''The Times'' in 1931 and conceived by Stanley Morison, the artistic adviser to the British branch of the printing equipment company Monotype Imaging, Monotype, in ...
would require the sequence
_02F^^ete-Dieu >>a S<
where
It was only possible to use glyphs other than those already escaped within SCORE by manually editing the font files, re-encoding SCORE's font templates (a third-party utility called AFM2PSC was written to facilitate this), or editing the final EPS file.
Conditional editing
With version 4, conditional editing was included in the main program. This allowed users to write conditional statements in a language similar to BASIC
BASIC (Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) is a family of general-purpose, high-level programming languages designed for ease of use. The original version was created by John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz at Dartmouth College ...
. Prior to this it had only been possible by using third party utilities: ScorEdit from Ararat Software, and EDITSCOR from Brodhead Music Typography.
For example,
will move all items on all staves which are beyond position 100 (), 20 steps to the left ().
will delete all notes () on staves lower than 4 () and all rests () on staves greater than or equal to 6 ().
If notes () are on a staff above 3 () and have tails (the result of P9 MOD
Mod, MOD or mods may refer to:
Places
* Modesto City–County Airport, Stanislaus County, California, US
Arts, entertainment, and media Music
* Mods (band), a Norwegian rock band
* M.O.D. (Method of Destruction), a band from New York City, US ...
10 is not 0), or notes () are on staff 1 () and to the right of position 100 (), then the notes will be given an accent () and an X-shaped notehead ().
Some functionality was limited in the implementation, such as nested parentheses being unsupported (except for use with MOD()), being unable to edit text, being unable to cross-compare and edit different items simultaneously, and being unable to read macros in sequence from a source file. Users wishing to employ these methods had to use the third party utilities described earlier.
WinScore allowed macros to be read in sequence from source files, but did not add any more functions.
Output
Music notation data is saved in a proprietary but open format
An open file format is a file format for storing digital data, defined by an openly published specification usually maintained by a standards organization, and which can be used and implemented by anyone. Open file format is licensed with open lic ...
:
The files are saved in binary format where the first word is the word count for the entire file. The word count is normally a 16-bit integer; however, if the word count exceeds about 31000, then a 32-bit integer is used. Saved files with less than 31000 words can be read back into the earlier versions of SCORE, except, of course, any new features of WinScore will be ignored. Files with greater than 31000 words cannot be read by the earlier versions of SCORE. The files are concluded with a 6-word trailer. The last word is -9999. The next word back is the count of the preceding trailer words (currently 5). The next word back is the measurement code (0 = inches, 1 = metric). The next back is the program version number. The next is the program serial number (a converted integer). The first word of the trailer is currently undefined. After the initial integer word count, the rest of the file consists entirely of 4-byte (32-bit) floating-point words. Each item is defined by a parameter count followed by its given parameters.
Files are usually given the extensions ".mus" or ".pag", though any extension is permitted. (Finale
Finale may refer to:
Pieces of music
* Finale (music), the last movement of a piece
* ''Finale'' (album), a 1977 album by Loggins and Messina
* "Finale B", a 1996 song from the rock opera ''Rent''
* "Finale", a song by Anthrax from ''State of Eu ...
also uses the extension ".mus" though the file format is different).
SCORE creates PostScript
PostScript (PS) is a page description language in the electronic publishing and desktop publishing realm. It is a dynamically typed, concatenative programming language. It was created at Adobe Systems by John Warnock, Charles Geschke, Doug Br ...
graphics that can either be sent to a PostScript printer or saved as an Encapsulated PostScript
Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) is a Document Structuring Convention (DSC) conforming PostScript document format usable as a graphics file format. The format was developed as early as 1987 by John Warnock and Chuck Geschke, the founders of Adobe, ...
file. For creating publications the EPS graphics can be imported into a desktop publishing
Desktop publishing (DTP) is the creation of documents using page layout software on a personal ("desktop") computer. It was first used almost exclusively for print publications, but now it also assists in the creation of various forms of online c ...
program.
Extensions and utilities
There are a number of third party utilities which take advantage of the open file format to extend the programs' functionalities and share data with other notation programs. These are among the most notable:
Use with modern systems
The MS-DOS versions of SCORE can still be run on modern operating system
An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs.
Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also in ...
s through the use of virtual machine
In computing, a virtual machine (VM) is the virtualization/emulation of a computer system. Virtual machines are based on computer architectures and provide functionality of a physical computer. Their implementations may involve specialized hardw ...
s, though accommodations need to be made for their age. The most common MS-DOS emulators for SCORE are DOSBox
DOSBox is a free and open-source emulator which runs software for MS-DOS compatible disk operating systems—primarily video games. It was first released in 2002, when DOS technology was becoming obsolete. Its adoption for running DOS games i ...
in Windows, or Boxer in macOS
macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...
.
References
External links
*
Video interview with Leland Smith
' at NAMM
The NAMM Show is an annual event in the United States that is organized by the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM), who describe it as "the industry’s largest stage, uniting the global music, sound and entertainment technology commun ...
*
Stanford and the Computer Music Revolution
' at CCRMA
Stanford University has many centers and institutes dedicated to the study of various specific topics. These centers and institutes may be within a department, within a school but across departments, an independent laboratory, institute or center ...
*
Musical score page layout using SCORE
' at YouTube
YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
*
Demonstration of using the LABELS utility with SCORE
' at YouTube
YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
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Scorewriters
Fortran software