The Development of a Computer Program to Arrange and Print Traditional Music Notation
Render, Charles Ray
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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/70809
Description
Title
The Development of a Computer Program to Arrange and Print Traditional Music Notation
Author(s)
Render, Charles Ray
Issue Date
1981
Department of Study
Music
Discipline
Music Education
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Educat.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Date of Ingest
2014-12-16T04:12:33Z
Keyword(s)
Computer Science
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to explore the problems involved in converting musical compositions and arrangements from concepts to functional scores with electronic data processing. The investigation describes design and development of the MUSCOR III system: a computer program and subprograms to process digital data into traditional music scores.
Significant problems solved during the study include transposing notation, merging and positioning segments, automatically extracting and repositioning instrument parts and creating page layouts by automating traditional music scores.
The transposition problem revealed subtle complications which were beyond definition using algorithms and required extensive logic and programming. The technique developed includes three levels of abstraction. The first enables automatic selection of key signatures, notes and accidentals from any traditional key to the relative notation in any other traditional key. This selection process recognizes that accidentals may require changing the letter name of the note and use of a different accidental in order to maintain harmonic integrity in the transposed key and that selection decisions vary significantly between keys. The second level of abstraction determines correct disposition of multiple accidentals for the same note in the same measure and the effects of these upon the transposed notes. The third level involves optimization to minimize enharmonic notation.
The MUSCOR system consists of a small master control program and three processing modules of subprograms. The first of these modules allows encoding notes and symbols in digital form and applies edits for syntax and proper musical practices. Default conditions for duration and attributes are automatic and resettable. Output of the encoding process is stored on direct access files for processing by the secondary processing module which allows editing of the data strings and assembling them into instrument and voice parts. The final module processes assembled scores according to page dimensions and staff sizes and divides the score and parts into staves, calculates their placement upon the pages and passes plotting instructions to output devices.
The programs are written in ANSI FORTRAN IV without extensions and configured to operate on the Hewlett-Packard 3000 III minicomputer. They consist of over 13,000 statements configured to operate within 64 kilobytes of core with a virtual operating system. The system architecture was designed to be as machine independent as possible. With proper interface software, it can be used in conjunction with computer composition programs and with output processing software such as sound synthesizers and graphic output devices.
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