Request for missing modern notation elements

• Jan 12, 2016 - 05:12

Hello, my name is Leonid Hrabovsky, I am a composer with international reputation, Honorable Professor of Mykola Lyssenko Music Academy, Lviv, Ukraine.
I find it very pleasant and promising that MuseScore has been already translated in 43 languages including my native Ukrainian. Therefore, when embracing this initiative and looking at MuseScore with hope that over time, when fully developed, it will become my scorewriter of choice, -- I wish to incline the developers of MuseScore to take into account several matters of importance.

1) First of all, it is the necessity for non-English language countries-based composers, to have, from Text feature, free access to their entire font collection (like it was in Sibelius-1, where the fonts pop-up menu opened instantly after one clicks in the score being in Text feature) ---
and this is for not only entering lyrics in their native languages, but also for complementing the existing symbol and graphics vocabulary of a scorewriter with different elements originally missing by default. I mean there those in heavy and broad use among leading composers of XX century (Krzysztof Penderecki, Karlheinz Stockhausen, George Crumb, to name only few).
I and other colleagues will be then able to use many of these elements derived from a number of graphic fonts (like Map Symbols, Monotype Sorts, MS Outlook, MT Extra, Petrucci, and Wingdings 1-2-3).

2) That said, I want to use this occasion as an opportunity to turn your attention to an general, indispensable source of knowledge about contemporary XX-XXI century notation -- the book of Erhard Karkoschka, Notation in New Music. (there is the link where one may read it online for free - )

3) And there is the necessity for the contemporary harp notation, elaborated by famous Carlos Salzedo where many specific graphic elements were included; obviously they still are not broadly known. And therefore I urge the MuseScore programmers to make close acquaintance with Salzedo's "Modefn Study of the Harp" (available online at

Modern Study of the Harp (Salzedo, Carlos) - IMSLP ..)

and add to their graphic elements all the symbols introduced by this great harpist and composer. It would greatly simplify and speed up the notation not only of solo harp compositions, but also of harp parts in our symphonic and operatic scores.
After making acquaintance with MuseScore through your 10 video tutorials, I see that it is still it its early age, but from this promising scorewriter may grow a mighty figure winning the world over - and especially the entire global world of art music –
especially if desires and recommendations of experienced academic composers will be taken account of.
If there will be the desire on your part to establish a dialog on this subject, I am ready even to be a permanent consultant and tester of your subsequent versions, and it, I believe, will inevitably be a win-win situation for both of us.

Sincerely,

Leonid Hrabovsky"

2.
Hi everyone, I want to use this occasion as an opportunity to stress the necessity for creators of both Finale and Sibelius -- to turn their attention to an indispensable source of knowledge about contemporary notation -- the book of Erhard Karkoschka, Notation in New Music. (there is the link where one may read it online for free - )

The brothers Finn, creators of Sibelius, knew several important things about XX century notation, but far of 100% as it might be expected of the graduates of Royal College of Music. (The same is true, although, of developers of Lily Pond & MuseScore, too). And as a result, modern academic composers like me, for complementing missing notation elements, were forced to use some graphic fonts from outside, like Webdings, Wingdings 1-2-3 and couple of others. In Sibelius 1 & 1.5, it was easy because of immediate opening of Font window after hitting Create-Text-Technical. For unknown reasons, this option was eliminated in all subsequent versions 2 to 5, and only in version Sib-6 and later, it was back, but not as in direct access - one must go to Properties pop-down menu to open Text part of it. The Symbol assortment is now considerably broader that before, but still insufficient. For instance, the contemporary harp notation, elaborated by famous Carlos Salzedo where many specific graphic elements were included, obviously is absolutely not known to any of developers of scorewriters listed above. And therefore I urge all of them to make close acquaintance with Salzedo's "Modefn Study of the Harp" (available online at

Modern Study of the Harp (Salzedo, Carlos) - IMSLP ..)

and add to their graphic elements all the symbols introduced by this great harpist and composer. It would greatly simplify and speed up the notation not only of solo harp compositions, but also of harp parts in our symphonic and operatic scores.
After making acquaintance with MuseScore through your 10 video tutorials, I see that it is still it its early age, but from this promising scorewriter may grow a mighty figure winning the world over - and especially the entire global world of art music –
especially if desires and recommendations of experienced academic composers will be taken account of.
If there will be the desire on your part to establish a dialog on this subject, I am ready even to be a permanent consultant and tester of your subsequent versions, and it, I believe, will inevitably be a win-win situation for both of us.

Sincerely,

Leonid Hrabovsky


Comments

Hi Leonid,

Thank you for your long post. I will try to sum up and answer your question.

1/ About text fonts. In MuseScore 2.0.2, you can use any font installed on your system in any text. When you enter a text in the score, you can change the font in the bottom toolbar. This toolbar contains all the font installed on your system and so you can write in any language or use symbols from any font. If you need help finding the right symbol, you can hit F2 or the "alpha" icon at the bottom right to access a complete list of unicode symbols.

2/ You recommend the reading Erhard Karkoschka - Notation in New Music: A Critical Guide to Interpretation and Realisation (1972). I will try to get my hand on it but according to the cover; this book goes a lot further than Common Western Notation and is closest to the field of Graphic Notation. I believe Graphic Notation is not in the scope of MuseScore. However any addition to CWN like feathered beams which are already supported by MuseScore could be discussed. (Btw, another book that look similar is Notations 21 by Theresa Sauer...)

3/ For the harp specifically, you recommend the reading of Modern Study of the Harp by Carlos Salzedo. I quickly browse it, and I see a few symbols that are indeed not present in MuseScore currently. However, several are present in the Symbol Palette though (Press Z or go in View > Master Palette > Symbols) including Oboic Flux, Thunder effect, different salzedo etc...
Here is a quick score made entirely with MuseScore 2.0.2

Capture d'écran 2016-01-12 09.51.02.png

Additionally, it's currently possible to create any symbol in SVG format and add them in a custom palette. One can even mix the SVG with existing symbols and export such a palette to share it with other users who wants to notation for harps using Salzedo's conventions.

What we miss is a motivated harpist to create such a palette and explain developers what is really missing for harp notation.

Attachment Size
HarpSymbols.mscz 12.38 KB

In reply to by [DELETED] 5

2. Graphic Notation: At some point, I'm hoping the devs will one day see that they have done an excellent job creating an application that notates according to standards, and they will begin focusing on MuseScore's customized (non-standard) composition capabilities, such as those in Graphics Notation. I myself have put in a few FRs that were rejected (for lack of a better word) because they are non-standard notation (arrows on slur lines, alternate slur points, to name two), but could be easily implemented once development starts focusing on the composer rather than the printer/publisher.
3. Where is the link to show how to import SVG graphics as a custom symbol? I wish I had known about that a long time ago!

Hello, lasconic, harbinger, and Zack the Hardshark, and thank you all for comments. J just entered Forums to say that today, I discovered in the huge Symbols window (it overpasses that of Sibelius many times!) several Salzedo notation symbols for harp, although not all that I knew. For instance, I couldn't see the symbol for damping strings at pins and playing in the middle of them. So, your idea of involving an experienced harpist for completing the Salzedo symbols set seems very productive. Also, it will be highly desirable if somebody writes a plugin that automatically creates pedaling marks (such a plugin has been created in Sibelius-6) - it will be essential time saving for all composers and arrangers.

I looked for these Salzedo symbols and lines in general notation palette and thus could not know that they are in Symbols window.

Best, Leonid

In reply to by Leonid Hrabovsky

Just so you know, the Symbols palette is basically the contents of the free / open source font Bravura, provided as part of the SMuFL project for standardizing music fonts. I'd expect all applications to support that same set of symbols soon, or would if the applications were still in active development anyhow.

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