Mozart the music processor

Mozart the music processor is a proprietary WYSIWYG scorewriter program for Microsoft Windows. It is used to create and edit Western musical notation to create and print sheet music, and to play it via MIDI.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7][8]}

Mozart the music processor

Mozart 14 screenshot
Original author(s)	David Webber
Initial release	9 November 1994
Stable release	16.1.5 / September 2024; 3 months ago (2024-09)[1]
Written in	C++
Operating system	Microsoft Windows
Available in	Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Welsh
Type	Scorewriter
License	Proprietary
Website	www.mozart.co.uk

The program was named after the composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.^[9]

History

Origins

Work was started on the software in the late 1980s as a personal project to assist its author in arranging music for the groups in which he played. The model was that of a WYSIWYG word processor, but for music notation. The idea was to be able to type the music as a document, save it in a file, print it as well as play it back through the computer's speakers. Following the advent of the internet, Version 1 was released to the world on 9 November 1994.

Development

Mozart 1, in 1994, was entirely based on its author's vision of what a music processor should be. Mozart's development in the subsequent decades has been driven by the needs of its users.^[10] Elaine Gould's 2011 book, Behind Bars, is the primary guide to developing and maintaining music engraving in Mozart, as it is for other score writers.^[11]

Timeline

Since the initial release in 1994, new major versions have been released regularly.^[12] Intermediate free service packs are issued as needed.

• 1994: Mozart 1 – a 16 bit program for Windows 3.1
• 1996: Mozart 2 – a 32 bit program for Windows 95
• 1997–2001: Mozart 3 – Mozart 6
• 2002: Mozart Viewer/Reader is released: a free program which will view, print, and play Mozart (.mz) files
• 2003: Mozart 7
• 2004: Mozart 8 – aka Mozart 2005
• 2006–09: Mozart 9, 10
• 2010: The Mozart Jazz Font is introduced
• 2011–14: Mozart 11, 12
• 2016: Mozart 13 – introduces the ribbon bar interface
• 2018: Mozart 14 – automates proportional spacing
• 2020: Mozart 15 – symbols, rendering, interface improvements
• 2022: Mozart 16 – playback, arpeggiation

Features

Interface

• Score entry by computer keyboard, mouse, on-screen piano keyboard, external MIDI instrument
• Extensive set of keyboard shortcuts with additional customisable mapping
• Programmable through macros
• Import: MusicXML, NIFF, abc, MIDI (.MID, .RMI, .KAR)
• Export: MusicXML, abc, MIDI (.MID, .RMI, .KAR), images including BMP, GIF, PNG, JPEG, TIFF, EMF
• Help: extensive, context-sensitive help system

Score and instrumentation

• An extensible library of score templates
• Support for a large collection of transposing instruments
• Support for tablature notation, chord symbols, chord shapes, and percussion.
• Support for a number of plucked string instruments (i.a. guitar, banjo, ukulele, lute, tamburitza) in various tunings
• Score can be shown in concert pitch, written pitch, B♭ pitch
• Transposition to any key
• Extraction of parts from a score

Music entry

• Clefs include treble, bass, alto, tenor, percussion, tablature, and others.
• Time signatures automatically respected in the music
• Key signatures from 7 flats to 7 sharps and changes with optional cancelling naturals
• Repeated accidentals automatically respected
• Optional courtesy accidentals
• Cross- and diamond-shaped note heads, cue notes
• Enharmonic transformations involving (, ♭, ♮, ♯, )

• Lyrics attached to notes
• All text items support Unicode characters
• Text entry has keyboard shortcuts for accented characters and symbols

Play-back

• Playback optionally with tracking cursor
• Playback follows repeats and redirections
• Playback obeys dynamics, pedal marks, phrasing, rubato, and articulation including tremolo and reiteration

Miscellaneous

• Mozart 10 Gold-certified to run under Wine-1.1.36 on Slackware Linux 12.1^[13]
• Support for foot pedal page turners

Limitations

• No macOS support
• Limited control over MIDI events
• Time signature must be common to all parallel staves
• No Gregorian chant notation
• No quarter tone or other microtonal notations
• No handbell support
• Minimal support for extended techniques and contemporary notations

See also

• Music engraving
• Scorewriter
• Comparison of scorewriters
• List of music software

References

1. "Release notes, Mozart 16". Retrieved 13 June 2024.
2. Chad Criswell. "Mozart Music Notation Software Review". MusicEdMagic. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
3. "Shareware scene: Mozart". PC Plus. No. 105. July 1995. p. 373. With Mozart much of the drudgery of preparing new music is eliminated. You can cut and paste sections of music and transpose notes and it automatically aligns notes in parallel parts. You can add the full range of note accents, rests and other symbols to your music with treble bass alto and tenor clef options as well as triplets and other multiplets. For lyrics and comments you can add text in any installed TrueType font. ... In use, it's immediately noticeable that Mozart has been designed to be a practical tool for serious work, but anyone with adequate musical knowledge should soon find it as easy to use as a word-processing package.
4. "Mozart". Computer Life. No. 9. December 1995. p. 10. One of the very best shareware music notation packages we've ever come across. If you'd like to produce your own sheet music you must try this out.
5. "Intelligent programming". Classical Music. No. 680. 31 March 2001. p. 43. [Mozart] offers many of the features of its more expensive counterparts, such as providing score templates, part extraction, playback which observes dynamics, supporting transposing instruments, the ability to import MIDI files and a wide variety of musical symbols.
6. "Feature: Making music with your PC". PC Home. No. 113. 2001. p. 45. ISSN 1351-5373. Mozart is a music processor designed to work just like a word processor, but for the printing of sheet music. It's not a music sequencer, as it's intended primarily for the production of sheet music, but on systems with sound – particularly MIDI – the music can be played either with straight classical rhythmic interpretation or in a swing style.
7. "Mozart 4.1". PC Format. No. 168. December 2004. p. 115. Mozart 4.1 acts like a word processor for music. A music processor if you will. Built-in features enable you to compose your music in the correct notation with characters and icons available to print out for use in the real world. If you're a playwright writing a play in Word, you don't have the option of having the software act out the play for you. With Mozart 4.1, however, a full synthesised orchestra is at your fingertips, ready and eager to play the music. You can compose, edit, assign instruments, and save in the universal Midi file format.
8. "Mozart – a top quality music notation program". QA Education. No. 63. Winter 2010. p. 29. Mozart 10 is now available from www.mozart.co.uk. Mozart is a top-quality music notation program which delivers print-out and instant play-back for anything from a single melody line to a full orchestral score, at a fraction of the price you would normally expect to pay for such state-of-the-art user-friendly software. Features include: fast, intuitive note entry via the computer keyboard; multiple staves; lyrics; percussion; tablature; comprehensive instrument data base; strict adherence to music syntax; instant transposition and much, much more. Mozart comes with a comprehensive help system, and a step-by-step tutorial manual and full internet support.
9. "About the author". Retrieved 28 July 2021.
10. "User group". Retrieved 28 July 2021.
11. "Transposing instruments", "New in Mozart 15", mozart.co.uk. Retrieved 28 July 2021
12. "History of Mozart". Retrieved 28 July 2021.
13. Toal, Lawrence (21 January 2010). "WineHQ – Mozart the Music Processor Mozart 10". Wine HQ. Retrieved 26 January 2010.

Further reading

• Gould, Elaine (2011). Behind Bars. Faber Music. ISBN 9780571514564, also in German as Hals über Kopf. Edition Peters. 2014. ISBN 9781843670483.

External links

• Official website
• Free reader/viewer/player/printer; evaluation version