Powell on Score

Jan de Kloe, September 2002

I acquired the book 'Music engraving today' by Steven Powell which was advertised a while ago in this space. The book compares Finale to Sibelius in detail and mentions in passing the names of a few other engraver computer tools. It is not my intention to review this book here but would like to share with the forum what he writes about Score. What follows is not an infringement on copyright but a literature study.

Page 168-169 in Chapter "Notation programs"
"Leland Smith's Score is the granddaddy of notation programs. It was originally written for the mainframes of the '70s and was later ported to the IBM PCs. It does not have a graphical user interface; it is command line driven. […] The program only works for DOS and will almost certainly never be updated. I'm told by experts that an experienced user can engrave music quickly with this system, and there are a number of publishers currently using it, but I know a number of users who are being forced to abandon it as the newer computers are less and less able to work with DOS-based programs. I also, personally, do not like the output very much (the noteheads are small and non-standard, and the lyric spacing is poor), but the principal reason I cannot recommend it is simply because I think its time is past."

Page 244 in appendix "Company sites"
"I couldn't find a Score home page, per se (there is a download page for program updates), but this links to many Score sites."

Even if Powell does not take Score the way many of us do, I find the book suggested reading for the engraver willing to improve his professional knowledge. Here is the full reference:

Steven Powell,
Music engraving today. The art and practice of digital notesetting.
Brichtmark Music, Inc.
New York, 2002
ISBN 0-9658910-1-1
249 pages, graphics on every page.


I bought this at www.elkinmusic.com for $27.95 who charged me $12.05 for sending it across the Atlantic.