This is the list of main notation tools copied from Wikipedia:

• Canorus
• Capella
• Denemo
• Dorico
• Encore
• Finale
• Forte
• Frescobaldi
• Gregorio
• Guitar Pro
• Igor Engraver
• Impro-Visor
• jEdit plugin
• LilyPond
• Lime
• MagicScore
• Mozart
• Mus2
• MusEdit
• MuseScore
• Music Write
• MusiCAD
• MusicEase
• Musink
• MusiXTeX
• NoteEdit
• Notation Composer
• NoteWorthy Composer
• NOTION
• Overture
• Philip's Music Writer
• Power Tab Editor
• Progression
• Rosegarden
• SCORE
• ScoreCloud
• Sibelius
• SmartScore
• TuxGuitar

1. Are scores being used today like the past? and Why?
2. Why do and don't you like about working with the notation tools?
3. Why are the music courses in the colleges and universities based on notations?
4. Can you read and work with scores?
5. Do you want to learn to work with and use scores?
6. Do you think that scores will be dead in the future or they are eternal?
7. Have you ever worked with the mentioned tools?
8. Do they actually suit your needs? or you just use scores to boast about your musical abilities?
9. Which genres of music have the most chances to profit from the scores?
10. Which tool is good for integrating with DAWs and external Libraries?

Thanks for the good responses.

 

long time user Finale, Musescore and Sibelius .. an engraver too ..
i was actually hoping that Dorico is a combination between Finale and Sibelius, but it was different workflow.
mostly i am usin Noteperformer integrated with Sibelius and Finale, they are perfect for Strings ... bad not really good on brass and percussions. but i like the mock up result.

 

1. Scores continue to be used in different ways. A composer will make a distinctive use in relation to an orchestrator or performer

2. I prefer to work with notation than with Piano Roll

3. Because these courses work with aspects that need to be passed on to students through the facilities provided by musical notation. Not everything can be passed through notation, but statistically there are a considerable amount of parameters that can be transcribed

4. Yes!

5. I made that decision years ago and I do not regret it!

6. Sheet music will never die. They can be transposed from the physical to the digital medium, which is already happening. Sheet music is like painting... even those difficult to read/understand, such as those written by new complexity composers. The same can be said of scores that use only traditional notation: Observe any score written by Ottorino Respighi ... they are beautiful to see, to read and especially to hear!

7. I use Finale and I'm actually starting to use Overture and Notion too!

8. Not at all! The program ideal for me would have note insertion from Finale with MIDI editing constituted by a mix between Overture, Notion and Dorico.

9. This depends very much on the segment that will use them. Composers and orchestrators use them for specific purposes. Different from people who buy a song book to sing and/or play the favorite song of their favorite artist. That being said, I think the genres that are more in vogue tend to sell more. But, you have to check it out, 'cos piracy causes potential drops in tax revenues.

10. As far as I know, any of this list can be used in combination with a DAW. However, there should be notation programs that record / transfer MIDI information more efficiently. At this point, I think that Finale, Sibelius, Overture, Notion and Dorico are approaching a general standart, but since I have not used most of the programs mentioned above, it is difficult to say with certainty.

 

Last edited: Dec 4, 2018

But less participation on this thread says another thing. It seems nothing can persuade them to use these tools.

 

Apparently composing on the piano roll is much more comfortable for the vast majority! Thus the increasing importance of softwares like Overture, Notion and Doritos for a large part of this public: These new emerging platforms are daring more with respect to the hybridization between notation software and DAW. I remember, years ago, when I suggested an update to Finale's MIDI Tool menu, at the Makemusic Forum, 'cos that shit is completely outdated. Needless to say: It rained criticism from all sides, with users saying that hybridization between notation software and DAW was something impossible and even undesirable. Today, there is an increasing number of users who need refinement and customization of MIDI capacities and this is what has caused customers to migrate to these new platforms. As a result of this huge lack of initiative, Makemusic are desperate with the loss of clients for Sibelius, Overture, Notion and Doritos.

 

Last edited: Dec 6, 2018

I still don't find the scores' real place in the 21st century's minimalist music.

Unless you'd be bound up with the tradition and try to make such music that would be a bit peculiar:
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0532997/videoplayer/vi1753678105

Where do you use scores in your music? How does it help you?

 

2.
I can never compose music by writing or programming it! (either notation software or piano roll) I need to playing or otherwise, my music will become very simple.
Writing the rhythm of melody notes by inserting those is not appealing! Because you can't convey your emotion in music by inserting those!, Also about the melody, how one can know about how it sounds before playing that? Just writing random consonance and dissonance notes and hope for the good result?
However, I know planning before playing can expand our creativity to not play the same ideas every time! I mean that written music can be a basis for a more complex composition.

 

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Last edited by a moderator: Dec 8, 2018

I could answer all of these questions but they are only my opinion and what works for me.
As for usefulness in today's music, the most practical use is for film scorers, ensemble composers and arrangers, Music school ensembles, concert bands, orchestras and the like.

While certainly anyone can create music without writing a single note out on paper or into a scoring application, it is a"per application" scenario.
Written music is a road map. It can aid in many things but does not determine someone that reads well is better than someone that does not and I read well, but I learned to play working songs out painstakingly listening to LP's and wearing them out. A mix of both is important I think.

I use Sibelius but sometimes I write with a pencil. Other times I just play the music in without a score.
If I hear a six piece brass section, because I have been doing it for so long, it's faster to write it out for me, for others it may not be.
As I mentioned it's a delicate topic - horses for courses with the music and also with the choice of programs which is like asking which DAW? - The one that works best for whomever.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Dec 8, 2018

Not to mention the 1,200 definable subgenres of mass media music, what do you think of the scores of John Adams, John Corigliano, Arvo Part, Thomas Ades, John Tavener, Elliot Goldenthal, Philip Glass and Michael Nyman? Many of their works are perfectly written using conventional notation. I also emphasize that, for me, there is a direct relation on using conventional notation with the appreciability of their works: these composers keep the idea of innovating without losing a connection with tradition (genres, subgenres and its styles)!

All my colleagues who have followed the path of unconventional notation (and music, I mean, graphic scores, new complexity) have become professors in universities (where they live on a fantasy island, 'cos they think that they don't need to relate to mass culture, or when they do, often grudgingly, they use elements of popular music for the stylized - camouflaged - insertion in their works, but every single one, I emphasize, is completely disillusioned with the fact that there is no penetration of their works within society) or changed their careers.

I use them all the time, whether composing music for myself, for games, movies or studying orchestrations. My first sketch is done through the creation/performance on my instrument. After this, I perform musical notation and arrangement in a score editor (where I better develop my ideas - orchestration, motivic treatment, variations, inversions, etc.) and then finish the work on a DAW.

That simple.

 

Last edited: Dec 12, 2018