For the next few weeks we’ll be sharing some interviews that we did with members of MOLA, An Association of Performance Librarians, at their annual conference in June. We’re calling these brief conversations "Scoring Half Notes". In today’s segment, we talk with Jane Cross, a music archivist at the Library of Congress. She’s been in that position nearly three years, and before that, was a librarian with the prestigious United States Marine Band for 22 years; 11 of those as chief librarian. At the MOLA conference, Jane delivered a presentation entitled “Bits and Bytes: Managing All Those Digital Music Files”. It’s a topic we turn to from time to time here on Scoring Notes, and we loved catching up with an actual archivist to tell us how to be our best selves in this area. Even if you weren’t present for Jane’s discussion, we’ve included a link to her presentation and a very helpful risk mitigation worksheet. You’ll want to remember the acronym LOCKSS: “Lots Of Copies Keep Stuff Safe”. Bits and Bytes: Managing All Those Digital Music Files: Digital Preservation in the Performance Library Digital Preservation Risk Mitigation Worksheet More from Scoring Notes: MOLA 2022: Advancements in music notation software MOLA 2022 conference wrap-up
At the 2022 MOLA conference, Philip Rothman and David MacDonald jointly presented a session called “Advancements in Music Notation Software”. It’s a summary of the developments from the past year or so in the world of music notation software and related technology, and we thought it made for a great podcast episode if you’re looking to get caught up on what’s new or just refresh your memory. We took some questions from the audience, too, and put it all together for you here on Scoring Notes. Later this month, we’ll release some brief bonus segments featuring conversations we had with our librarian colleagues, so look for those in your Scoring Notes podcast feed. More from Scoring Notes: MOLA 2022 conference wrap-up Measure items in PDFs using Acrobat Reader and Preview A review of optical music recognition software Scoring Notes Product Guide
What happens when you combine custom fonts, fine-tuned engraving settings, and decades of collective music preparation expertise? The Scoring Express templates for Sibelius, Dorico, and Finale. Philip Rothman and David MacDonald talk with Joseph Trefler and Leo Nicholson about the creation of new template suites for Finale and Dorico, along with an update to the Sibelius version. We discuss the catalysts for creating professional, easy-to-use solutions for each application, and explore the high-level concepts of using Scoring Express along with the nerdy minutiae. More on Scoring Notes: Scoring Express for Dorico and Finale released; Sibelius templates updated
Allison Loggins-Hull and Nathalie Joachimare distinguished flutists and composers, and Flutronix, the name of their duo, says it all. Known for their unique blend of classical, hip hop, electronic programming and soulful vocals, music and technology intersect constantly in their work and music. They’re active in all of those genres and more, and yet somehow they found time to talk to Philip Rothman and David MacDonald about all of it. We first learn about how Allison and Nathalie met and began their collaboration, and the process of creating brand new repertoire for their unique combination of two flutes and electronica. They tell us about their influences and process of composition, and how, despite various labels being applied to their music, they aim to defy genre classification and instead simply create music that they want to play and hear. We then get into the tech, starting with, what else: music notation software. Allison and Nathalie use Sibelius and they talk about how it helps them visualize their music, both at a macro level as well as with respect to the finer details of harmony and chord structure. Their use of digital audio workstations as well as hardware and software synths play a crucial role in creating and developing their sounds, and we find our what they're currently using and how they use it with music notation software. Finally, we discuss the importance of music preparation and how essential well-prepared scores and parts are in rehearsal, especially when other elements like electronics are literally in the mix. Heard on this episode: Life Lines, by Nathalie Joachim Wander, by Nathalie Joachim Suite pou Dantan: III. Resevwa li, by Nathalie Joachim Homeland, by Allison Loggins-Hull Brown Squares, by Flutronix
When using music notation software and other technology, it can be worthwhile to have a consistent workspace for a long period of time. Sometimes, though, the opportunity presents itself to start anew. On this podcast episode, Philip Rothman and David MacDonald talk about making those upgrades — from the desk itself, to what's on and around it. For a the full list of everything we discussed on this episode, and more, with links to products we describe, see David MacDonald's companion Scoring Notes post: Upgrade your desk.
As the Scoring Notes podcast approaches the two-year mark and our 100th episode, we announce some changes to the release schedule and preview what's coming in future episodes. More from Scoring Notes and elsewhere: Nicole Jordan, Philadelphia Orchestra librarian [encore] MOLA 40th Annual Conference MuseScore 4 - First Alpha Released
Knowing the various rules and conventions that govern the setting of lyrics in vocal music is a good start, but if you use music notation software, there's more to learn. In this second of a two-part episode, Philip Rothman and David MacDonald discuss how to actually apply those principles in the leading scoring programs: Finale, Dorico, and Sibelius. There's a surprising degree of overlap in the way that these programs approach lyrics, but also some crucial differences. We first start by talking about how the software conceptualizes lyrics, and where to find them in the program. We discuss the various ways that you can actually get the lyrics into the file: typing into the score, copying and pasting, and importing. A few small but useful details don't go overlooked: hard spaces, hyphens, elisions are important elements of lyrics but are special cases when it comes to inputting text. Then, how do you edit the lyrics once they're into the score? Lyric settings are found in a variety of places in the software — document options, engraving rules, text style definitions, default positions — and we help you find your away around and try to avoid some common pitfalls. Hyphenation, or syllabification, is a hot-button topic and we offer up several tips of our own as well as those from podcast listeners. We also take a few questions and address those at the end of the episode. More on Scoring Notes: Lyrics and vocal music, part 1 Tricks for lyrics in Finale 3 helpful plug-ins for working with lyrics in Sibelius Differentiating staff text, system text, and lyrics in Sibelius Traditional lyrics beaming and slurs on melismas Adding extra lines of lyrics Making lyrics something to sing about Elsewhere: The Lyric Hyphenator
Working with lyrics and vocal music presents a special set of challenges and opportunities to burnish your music engraving skill set. In this first of a two-part episode, Philip Rothman and David MacDonald discuss many of the conventions and principles that govern lyric text. Staff position, alignment, and spacing must all be carefully considered when setting vocal text, and we sort through the best approaches for presenting the music clearly in relation to the lyrics. Beaming is an issue that has often confounded notesetters — specifically syllabic beaming, where the beams reflect the text instead of the rhythmic groups — and we talk about the change from traditional to modern notation and how best to handle melismatic passages. Fonts, always a favorite topic of conversation on Scoring Notes, are again worthy of exploration, and why certain fonts are better than others for lyrics. We offer our suggestions there, and also discuss the topics of hyphenation and word extensions that ...
When you work with music notation software, sometimes the greatest challenge is knowing what a task is actually called and where to find it. Plus, if you use more than one program, the same item might be implemented in different ways. In this encore presentation, Philip Rothman and David MacDonald go on a scavenger hunt to find useful features in Finale, Sibelius, and Dorico. We’ll uncover some hidden and not-so-hidden treasures on our journey, like repitching, exploding and reducing music, multi-edit workflows, and filters. We’ll also review how to reset it all when everything goes awry, so you can feel confident experimenting with new ways to make the software work for you, and not the other way around. Be sure to stick around to the end of the episode for a little update that covers a new feature introduced in Dorico 4: Instrument Filters. We'll talk about that and where to find the comparable feature in Finale and Sibelius. More on Scoring Notes: Re-input pitches in homophonic music The Sibelius 2018.1 release is smarter with multi-edit workflow improvements Sibelius 2018.4 released with multi-edits for text Dorico 4 review Dorico 3.5 review Sibelius 2020.9 update focuses on staves The focus is on staves with the Sibelius 2020.9 update
Software updates are often blockbuster events, but sometimes they are smaller affairs that just make working in the programs appreciably better. Such is the case with the latest updates to Finale and Dorico. Philip Rothman and David MacDonald recap the Finale v27.2 update, which featured new a jazz template and document style designed in collaboration with Darcy James Argue. We also explain why it's important Finale is now a "universal" application for Macs, like Dorico 4 is, which means that it can run natively on Apple's newest M1-powered machine. We then turn our attention to the Dorico 4.0.20 update, and highlight a few of our favorite improvements in this update. We discuss why the jump bar, the seemingly low-tech text-only way of working in Dorico, might be the secret to working faster in Dorico now that it returns better search results. We also discuss improvements to Dorico's Key Editor and look ahead to what's already been promised to come in the next update. More on Scoring Notes: Dorico 4.0.20 update brings fixes and improvements; iPad version also updated Darcy James Argue jazzes up Finale with “style” Finale version 27.2 adds new jazz template, native Apple silicon support