Software at your service

[musicus]

I had a good portion of my tongue firmly in cheek ─ shame there's no emoticon for precisely that.

I don't know about precisely, but the wink emoticon is often used for this.

[musicus]

Has anyone tried the Caeciliae software? It employs some of the more obscure features of OpenType fonts to build up neums as ligatures, but it only works on text processing software that is equipped to do this. Microsoft Word isn't, Adobe InDesign is.

I have now tried the Caeciliae font in Pages (part of Apple's iWork 09 suite, along with Keynote and Numbers) and it works just fine. At £69 inc VAT this is much cheaper than InDesign. Is there a relatively inexpensive Windows equivalent?

Here's my first effort (click to enlarge), complete with my clumsy line-lengths:

crux.jpg

[NorthernTenor]

Is there a relatively inexpensive Windows equivalent?

I believe Scribus (it's free in both senses) runs under Windows.

[Gabriel]

Some of the existing fonts and software miss out on the extended neum set now used by Solesmes, including various forms of oriscus and semi-liquescent neums.

If I recall correctly the St Meinrad guide mentions that some neums are copyright to Solesmes and so they are now withdrawn from their fonts.

[Southern Comfort]

Has anyone tried the Caeciliae software?

Here's my first effort (click to enlarge), complete with my clumsy line-lengths:

crux.jpg

This looks very good to me. Probably a few more hyphens, and some accents in the text, and you've got it.

[Southern Comfort]

If I recall correctly the St Meinrad guide mentions that some neums are copyright to Solesmes and so they are now withdrawn from their fonts.

Unless of course you bought the fonts a number of years ago, as I did, in which case you're all right....

[NorthernTenor]

Some of the existing fonts and software miss out on the extended neum set now used by Solesmes, including various forms of oriscus and semi-liquescent neums.

If I recall correctly the St Meinrad guide mentions that some neums are copyright to Solesmes and so they are now withdrawn from their fonts.

Yet another hole in the liturgical foot.

[musicus]

This looks very good to me. Probably a few more hyphens, and some accents in the text, and you've got it.

Thank you! I wasn't sure about the hyphens. I suppose the safest option is slavishly to follow the printed originals, but the hyphens sometimes lead to too much space between the neums. No doubt, practice will make perfect. As to accents, Caeciliae does have them, but I forgot!

[musicus]

Is there a relatively inexpensive Windows equivalent?

I believe Scribus (it's free in both senses) runs under Windows.

I checked this out and it may be freely downloaded at http://www.scribus.net It runs under Linux, OS/2, Windows and Mac OS X. I have installed it on my Mac and it runs just fine. At first glance, it seems to be a program that is capable of a good deal but which would require a lot of time and effort to master. But, hey, the best things in life are difficult. So is InDesign.

[musicus]

Good news: St Meinrad have now made their fonts available for free download at http://www.saintmeinradmusic.org/Pages/Fonts1.html

[Southern Comfort]

Excellent. These fonts are very beautiful and not difficult to use. Make sure you also download the User Manuals, etc, which are really helpful!

[gwyn]

Interesting stuff indeedy.
Are the Meinrad fonts usable within Sibelius or Finale?
Gwyn.

[musicus]

Interesting stuff indeedy.
Are the Meinrad fonts usable within Sibelius or Finale?
Gwyn.

Alas, no, Gwyn. They are an altogether different kind of font. As their website says:

The fonts are not software programs, but are used with word-processing and desktop publishing programs. The fonts are used to type the music into a document. These fonts will print crisply on high-quality printers at 300 dpi, 600 dpi and higher.
Note: It is important to have a high-end, word-processing or desktop publishing program, such as MS Word 6.0 for Windows or the like. These programs are able to show exactly on the screen what will print so the music and the text can be aligned.

Basically, as you type the characters, the music (including the stave) is gradually built up. Your software needs to be able to cope with fractional spacing. A current version of Word should be OK; also DTP software such as InDesign or Quark Express. Mac users could also use Pages.

As SC says, study the documentation (which is freely downloadable) before embarking on this fiddly but rewarding adventure.

The Caeciliae fonts, mentioned earlier, are even more demanding. They are OpenType, not TrueType like St Meinrad, and require DTP capabilities that Word does not have. All the other programmes mentioned above will work fine.

[gwyn]

Thanks Chief.

I've had some experience with Caeciliae fonts, so it's good to know that the St. M fonts are hopefully less torturous.