Music notation

This wiki offers an overview of software for creating publication-quality music scores on Trisquel GNU/Linux. All these programs offer playback and exporting printable PDF (*.pdf) files and also support exporting scores as MIDI (*.mid or *.midi) files among other formats.

• MuseScore3
• GNU Denemo
• Frescobaldi

MuseScore 3

MuseScore 3 It is suitable for beginners. It features an easy to use WYSIWYG editor with audio score playback for results that look and sound beautiful. It also includes a set of sounds that reproduce common instruments (as defined by General MIDI).

Install MuseScore3 with:

 # apt install musescore3

The homepage of MuseScore3 can be found on https://musescore.org/en/3.2.3

GNU Denemo

GNU Denemo is nothing like a drawing program, it has no fancy icons to drag and drop; instead it offers methods for entering music quickly with a keyboard, and even musically, played in via MIDI controller, or input acoustically with a microphone plugged into your computer’s sound card. The score is ready for printing for the most discerning performer to read from with ease. The entered notation is typeset using the GNU LilyPond music engraver, but importing GNU LilyPond files is limited to them, which are created with Denemo. All in all Denemo is suitable for more advanced users.

Install GNU Denemo with:

 # apt install denemo

The homepage of GNU Denemo can be found on https://denemo.org/

Frescobaldi

Frescobaldi is a GNU LilyPond sheet music text editor. It aims to be powerful, yet lightweight and easy to use way to edit GNU LilyPond files (*.ly). Frescobalid is suitable for advanced users who want to manually insert GNU LilyPond syntax. For an insight in the GNU LilyPond syntax, see screenshot. A beautiful and comprehensive documentation of GNU LilyPond can be found at https://lilypond.org/.

Install Frescobaldi with:

 # apt install frescobaldi

The homepage of Frescobaldi can be found on https://frescobaldi.org/

Further Reading

The screenshots show the The Free Software Song. The official homepage for this song is http://www.gnu.org/music/free-software-song.html - gnu.org

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denemo.png	139.97 KB
frescobaldi.png	201.6 KB