How do they do It ? Write Music!

            When you listen to the radio, go to the movies, watch a TV series, go to the symphony hall or just being annoyed by your neighbor's garage band, your are being surrounded by music that was made with a purpose. They might be noises or effects but the truth is that all of the above is music composed by someone. It might be to support some visuals in a movie or maybe it is going to be sang by a famous celebrity or a good symphony orchestra. Either way, the process of inspiration is the same for all of them.

The first thing a composer have to do is get involved in the project and get as much information as possible.

• If he was commissioned to write a symphony he will have to study the symphony form and all the symphonies of the great masters. Know the symphonic instruments, and have a vast knowledge in orchestration. By doing this he will be deep enough in to the project to do the job prominently.
• If the composer is assigned to write a song for a celebrity, he would then have to know the artist,know their style, know their previous albums and anything related to the artist.
• A film composer will have to attend the shooting sessions, know the story extremely well, decide if he is going to use electronic effects, a symphony orchestra, a rock group, the use of ethnic instruments, an existing band, a choir, or just a piano.

 

The Compositional Process

When the composer have all the important details about the project and gather all the information he is ready to take the next step, the compositional process.

• The composer think about melodic material that can be the essential base of the project
• This melodies have to be short and sticky to the ear, this is the only way of making it popular
• The melodies need the right character for whom is composed.
• After the melodies are composed he would find an accompaniment and work hard to make this as unique as possible
• He would then make some variations of the theme and/or transpose the theme in to other keys to change the color and mood.
• After choosing the melody and accompaniment, the composer has to work with the details. What else would that piece of music need? Effects, electronics, acoustic instruments, synthesizer,etc.
• With the right colors we are almost there. The composer check with his supervisor or boss for his approval.
• At this point he will work on any necessary improvement of the piece and try to give it that special something for it to success.

Every composer have their own way of writing music. Even if they don't follow the list above step by step they will eventually cover all of them by the end of the compositional process.

How to enjoy a Classical Music Concert (20 steps)

1. Be mentally prepared, its classical music
   
2. Know the story behind the piece or pieces, sometimes they are very interesting
   
3. Be aware that classical music in not only for old people or rich people, it is an amazing form of art for any kind of people.
   
4. Back when the music was composed, composers worked under extreme circumstances ( they didn't have computers) :)
   
5. When you get to the concert hall before the beginning of the concert read the program, know the musicians, the story behind the piece, the conductor, future performances, etc.
   
6. Feel the joy of being part of the classical music world, you are supporting people you have studied really hard to make it in to a symphony orchestra or a chamber group.
   
7. When the concertmaster comes out please applaud! He is the leader of the orchestra as well as the leader of first violin section. His job is not easy task! He has to be able to communicate music ideas well with his colleagues, have a strong leadership, and be a special musician since a lot of the orchestra problems musically and administrative are discussed with the concertmaster.
   
8. After the orchestra is tuned listen to the first melody or effect created by the composer
   
9. Listen to harmonies and how they accompany the melody
   
10. Who has the melody? Flute, oboe, violins, cellos?
    
11. If the piece have movements, are they repeating the same melodies again in other movements?
    
12. Does melodies represent a character according to the story behind it?
    
13. DONT applaud between movements
    
14. How big is the orchestra? Usually baroque and classical music are played by chamber orchestras with less than 40 member while the romantic music is played with over 80 member.
    
15. If there is a soloist, listen how he interacts with the orchestra members for example: A duo melody with the flute, or maybe he plays the melody and then the bassoon take it on.
    
16. Watch the conductor’s hair, some of them are really crazy
    
17. Listen to the percussion section, they have all kind of ethnical instruments
    
18. At intermission or at the end of the concert, go meet the musicians and the soloist
    
19. After watching closely all this details you will understand more what this is all about and you are more likely to find classical music as entertaining. This is why people say classical music is boring sometimes they don't know anything about it, is like looking at a modern painting, it is boring until you know what it is all about.
    
20. Symphonic music is one of the more complex genres, this is why sometimes is so hard to understand. It is not like a hip-hop that only uses 2 chords through all the song. We can also enjoy symphonic music in the movie theater, some orchestras also include in their season a pop concert or a Broadway highlights.This is a great start for someone that wants to get in to classical and symphonic music

How to Hear Colors in Music

If you are a musician or if you are involved somehow in the music industry, chances are that you’ve heard more than once this expression “ …..and the orchestration was brilliant, those colors!!!….” Maybe this is the first time you hear about colors in music, either way I will try to give you a basic introduction on what is it when we talk about colors in music. Often, composers and orchestrators refer to colors in music when they are talking about a certain feeling or sensation in a specific piece of music. They use that expression to explain someone else what they did in that excerpt of music, how they worked on it, and why they did it that way. James Horner is a prominent film composer who recently scored the Avatar movie. I’ve seen a lot of his interviews and he always talk about how he combine colors to create a specific feeling or mood. Since the primary purpose of music in film is to serve the moving images, music colors have a very important role. The different combinations of musical instruments in a specific scene make it seem darker or more brilliant, sad or happy, it is just about how the composer combine the musical instruments to achieve the work of supporting the movie with music effectively. So, we can say that colors in music are based in how we combine the musical instruments.
Lets imagine we are orchestrators and we already know all the ranges of the instruments of a symphony orchestra (their highest notes and their lowest), we know how to balance the orchestra well in terms of which instruments sounds louder than the others naturally. We are going to orchestrate the music for the movie Cast Away, the main character is in an island and he just lost his best friend "Wilson” a volleyball that went away by accident at sea. He is crying and trying to reach the ball but it is moving away too fast, and the scene its 3 minutes long all about the main character trying to reach his best friend. We have to choose the right colors to support that scene, we suddenly think about something peaceful but sad not too much passion or hysterical attitude but with pain. We know that the oboe would be perfect as a melody carrier in its middle register because it has a warm sound. Next step is to compose a sad melody for the oboe that fits the scene (remember, middle register for warm quality) With the perfect accompaniment we could make that scene unforgettable . But what could be the accompaniment? As orchestrators we know that the brass family would be to loud for this scene and the woodwind family will sound too homogeneous to the solo oboe and the melody could be lost. The String Family could be our solution, they have a mellow sound, and played in a soft dynamic can let the oboe rise and sing above the entire section. But we need a deep sound to support the oboe since that scene definitely required it, we know that if we choose basses, cellos and violas in their lower register to create long harmonies could work.Violins in their higher register wouldn’t be very appropriate for this cue due to its brightness in their color, but maybe as unison with the viola section in a moderate register would create a richer sound.


So we can say that in this particular case the composer chose this 2 colors from the palette which is the symphony orchestra . That dark sound created by the lower strings its the first color and the oboe above the harmony the second color. Those 2 colors where chosen by the composer or orchestrator to support the scene effectively but a different composer could have picked another 2 colors or maybe add a third one. Maybe he could’ve had the solo trumpet as the melody and a combination of woodwinds and strings as the accompaniment. The cue will still be effective but it would evocate a different mood in the person. As you get more experience as a composer/orchestrator it will come to you naturally.Colors are sonorities, when we hear a flute in its high register and an oboe also in its high register we could tell them apart by their colors, the oboe will have a more nasal sound, that is their natural color while the flute sound is more sweet. Classical music composers like Maurice Ravel and Igor Stravinsky are better known by their tremendous orchestrations. They knew the orchestra so well that they developed an incredible sensibility to sounds and colors, they could practically create anything they had in their minds.

Introduction to Music Theory

Lesson 1   -  Staffs, Clefs and Ledger Lines

Lesson 2   -  Note Duration

Lesson 3   -  Measures and Time Signature

Lesson 4   -  Rest Duration

Lesson 5   -  Dots and Ties

Lesson 6   -  Simple and Compound Meter

Lesson 7   -  Odd Meter

Lesson 8   -  Steps and Accidentals

Lesson 9   -  The Major Scale  (see also our Piano Scales chart )

Lesson 10   -  The Minor Scales  (see also our Piano Scales chart )

Lesson 11   -  Introduction to Major Chords

Lesson 12   -  An Introduction to Minor Chords

Lesson 13   -  Scale Degrees

Lesson 14   -  Key Signatures

Lesson 15   -  An Introduction to Major Scales

Lesson 16   -  Key Signature Calculation

Lesson 17   -  Generic Intervals

Lesson 18   -  Specific Intervals

Lesson 19   -  Introduction Staff and Clefs

Lesson 20   -  Writing Intervals

Lesson 21   -  Interval Inversion

Lesson 22   -  Introduction to Chords

Lesson 23   -  Triad Inversion

Lesson 24   -  Diatonic Triads

Lesson 25   -  Roman Numeral Analysis

Lesson 26   -  Voicing Chords

Lesson 27   -  Analysis #1

Lesson 28   -  Seventh Chords

Lesson 29   -  Diatonic Seventh Chords

Lesson 30   -  Seventh Chord Inversion

Lesson 31   -  Composing with Minor Scales

Lesson 32   -  Nonharmonic Tones

Lesson 33   -  Phrases and Cadences

Lesson 34   -  Circle Progressions

Lesson 35   -  Common Chord Progressions

Lesson 36   -  Triads in First Inversion

Lesson 37   -  Triads in Second Inversion

Lesson 38   -  Analysis #2

Lesson 39   -  Building Neapolitan Chords

Lesson 40   -  Using Neapolitan Chords

Lesson 41   -  Analysis #3

Lesson 42   -  Instrument Ranges

Lesson 43   -  Introduction to the pentatonic scale

Lesson 44   -  Introduction to Modes

Lesson 45   -  Degrees of the scale

Lesson 46   -  Introduction to Triads

Key Signatures Affects our Soul

Do you feel like this?

from Christian Schubart's Ideen zu einer Aesthetik der Tonkunst (1806)

C Major
Completely Pure. Its character is: innocence, simplicity, children's talk.

C Minor
Declaration of love and at the same time the lament of unhappy love. All languishing, longing, sighing of the love-sick soul lies in this key.

Db Major
A leering key, degenerating into grief and rapture. It cannot laugh, but it can smile; it cannot howl, but it can at least grimace its crying.--Consequently only unusual characters and feelings can be brought out in this key.

C# Minor
Penitential lamentation, intimate conversation with God, the friend and help-meet of life; sighs of disappointed friendship and love lie in its radius.

D Major
The key of triumph, of Hallejuahs, of war-cries, of victory-rejoicing. Thus, the inviting symphonies, the marches, holiday songs and heaven-rejoicing choruses are set in this key.

D Minor
Melancholy womanliness, the spleen and humours brood.

Eb Major
The key of love, of devotion, of intimate conversation with God.

D# Minor
Feelings of the anxiety of the soul's deepest distress, of brooding despair, of blackest depresssion, of the most gloomy condition of the soul. Every fear, every hesitation of the shuddering heart, breathes out of horrible D# minor. If ghosts could speak, their speech would approximate this key.

E Major
Noisy shouts of joy, laughing pleasure and not yet complete, full delight lies in E Major.

E minor
Na�ve, womanly innocent declaration of love, lament without grumbling; sighs accompanied by few tears; this key speaks of the imminent hope of resolving in the pure happiness of C major.
F Major
Complaisance & Calm.

F Minor
Deep depression, funereal lament, groans of misery and longing for the grave.

F# Major
Triumph over difficulty, free sigh of relief utered when hurdles are surmounted; echo of a soul which has fiercely struggled and finally conquered lies in all uses of this key.

F# Minor
A gloomy key: it tugs at passion as a dog biting a dress. Resentment and discontent are its language.

G Major
Everything rustic, idyllic and lyrical, every calm and satisfied passion, every tender gratitude for true friendship and faithful love,--in a word every gentle and peaceful emotion of the heart is correctly expressed by this key.

G Minor
Discontent, uneasiness, worry about a failed scheme; bad-tempered gnashing of teeth; in a word: resentment and dislike.

Ab Major
Key of the grave. Death, grave, putrefaction, judgment, eternity lie in its radius.

Ab Minor
Grumbler, heart squeezed until it suffocates; wailing lament, difficult struggle; in a word, the color of this key is everything struggling with difficulty.

A Major
This key includes declarations of innocent love, satisfaction with one's state of affairs; hope of seeing one's beloved again when parting; youthful cheerfulness and trust in God.
A minor
Pious womanliness and tenderness of character.

Bb Major
Cheerful love, clear conscience, hope aspiration for a better world.

Bb minor
A quaint creature, often dressed in the garment of night. It is somewhat surly and very seldom takes on a pleasant countenance. Mocking God and the world; discontented with itself and with everything; preparation for suicide sounds in this key.

B Major
Strongly coloured, announcing wild passions, composed from the most glaring coulors. Anger, rage, jealousy, fury, despair and every burden of the heart lies in its sphere.
B Minor
This is as it were the key of patience, of calm awaiting ones's fate and of submission to divine dispensation.

Translated by Rita Steblin in A History of Key Characteristics in the 18th and Early 19th Centuries. UMI Research Press (1983).

The History of the Bass (Humor)

The History of the Bass - !!Funny!!
by Tony Levin

In the beginning there was a bass. It was a Fender, probably a Precision, but it could have been a Jazz - nobody knows. Anyway, it was very old ... definitely pre-C.B.S. And God looked down upon it and saw that it was good. He saw that it was very good in fact, and couldn't be improved on at all (though men would later try.) And so He let it be and He created a man to play the bass. And lo the man looked upon the bass, which was a beautiful 'sunburst' red, and he loved it. He played upon the open E string and the note rang through the earth and reverberated throughout the firmaments (thus reverb came to be.) And it was good. And God heard that it was good and He smiled at his handiwork. Then in the course of time, the man came to slap upon the bass. And lo it was funky. And God heard this funkiness and He said, "Go man, go." And it was good. And more time passed, and, having little else to do, the man came to practice upon the bass. And lo, the man came to have upon him a great set of chops. And he did play faster and faster until the notes rippled like a breeze through the heavens. And God heard this sound which sounded something like the wind, which He had created earlier. It also sounded something like the movement of furniture, which He hadn't even created yet, and He was not so pleased. And He spoke to the man, saying "Don't do that!" Now the man heard the voice of God, but he was so excited about his new ability that he slapped upon the bass a blizzard of funky notes. And the heavens shook with the sound, and the Angels ran about in confusion. (Some of the Angels started to dance, but that's another story.) And God heard this - how could He miss it - and lo He became Bugged. And He spoke to the man, and He said, "Listen man, if I wanted Jimi Hendrix I would have created the guitar. Stick to the bass parts." And the man heard the voice of God, and he knew not to mess with it. But now he had upon him a passion for playing fast and high. The man took the frets off of the bass which God had created. And the man did slide his fingers upon the fretless fingerboard and play melodies high upon the neck. And, in his excitement, the man did forget the commandment of the Lord, and he played a frenzy of high melodies and blindingly fast licks. And the heavens rocked with the assault and the earth shook, rattled and rolled. Now God's wrath was great. And His voice was thunder as He spoke to the man. And He said, "O.K. for you, pal. You have not heeded My word. Lo, I shall create a soprano saxophone and it shall play higher than you can even think of." "And from out of the chaos I shall bring forth the drums. And they shall play so many notes thine head shall ache, and I shall make you to always stand next to the drummer." "You think you're loud? I shall create a stack of Marshall guitar amps to make thine ears bleed. And I shall send down upon the earth other instruments, and lo, they shall all be able to play higher and faster than the bass." "And for all the days of man, your curse shall be this; that all the other musicians shall look to you, the bass player, for the low notes. And if you play too high or fast all the other musicians shall say "Wow" but really they shall hate it. And they shall tell you you're ready for your solo career, and find other bass players for their bands. And for all your days if you want to play your fancy licks you shall have to sneak them in like a thief in the night." "And if you finally do get to play a solo, everyone shall leave the bandstand and go to the bar for a drink." And it was so.

Itzhak Perlman: The Truth Behind an Amazing Violinist

On Nov. 18, 1995, Itzhak Perlman, the violinist, came on 
stage to give a concert at Lincoln Center in New York City. 
If you have ever been to a Perlman concert, you know that 
getting on stage is no small achievement for him. He was 
stricken with polio as a child, and has braces on both legs
and walks with the aid of two crutches.

To see him walk across the stage one step at a time, painfully 
and slowly, is a sight. He walks painfully, yet majestically, 
until he reaches his chair.  Then he sits down, slowly, puts 
his crutches on the floor, undoes the clasps on his legs, 
tucks one foot back and extends the other foot forward. Then he 
bends down and picks up the violin, puts it under his chin, 
nods to the conductor and proceeds to play.

By now, the audience is used to this ritual. They sit quietly 
while he makes his way across the stage to his chair. They 
remain reverently silent while he undoes the clasps on his legs. 
They wait until he is ready to play. But this time, something 
went wrong. Just as he finished the first few bars, one of the 
strings on his violin broke. You could hear it snap - it went 
off like gunfire across the room. There was no mistaking what 
that sound meant. There was no mistaking what he had to do.

People who were there that night thought to themselves: 
"We figured that he would have to get up, put on the clasps 
again, pick up the crutches and limp his way off stage - to 
either find another violin or else find another string for 
this one... or wait for someone to bring him another."

But he didn't. Instead, he waited a moment, closed his eyes 
and then signaled the conductor to begin again. The orchestra 
began, and he played from where he had left off. And he played 
with such passion and such power and such purity as they had 
never heard before.

Of course, anyone knows that it is impossible to play a symphonic 
work with just three strings.  I know that; you know that. But 
that night Itzhak Perlman refused to know that. You could see 
him modulating, changing, recomposing the piece in his head.

At one point, it sounded like he was de-tuning the strings to 
get new sounds from them that they had never made before.

When he finished, there was an awesome silence in the room. 
And then people rose and cheered. There was an extraordinary 
outburst of applause from every corner of the auditorium. 
We were all on our feet, screaming and cheering, doing everything 
we could to show how much we appreciated what he had done.

He smiled, wiped the sweat from his brow, raised his bow to 
quiet us, and then he said, not boastfully, but in a quiet, 
pensive, reverent tone, "You know, sometimes it is the artist's 
task to find out how much music you can still make with what 
you have left."

What a powerful line that is. It has stayed in my mind ever 
since I heard it. And who knows? Perhaps that is the way of 
life - not just for an artist but for all of us. Here is a 
man who has prepared all his life to make music on a violin 
with four strings, who all of a sudden, in the middle of a
concert, finds himself with only three strings, and the music 
he made that night with just three strings was more beautiful, 
more sacred, more memorable, than any that he had ever made 
before, when he had four strings.

So, perhaps our task in this shaky, fast-changing, bewildering 
world in which we live, is to make music, at first with all 
that we have, and then, when that is no longer possible, 
to make music with what we have left.

How Unique are Classical Music Composers? (Humor)

 The Mozart Effect: Makes a child smarter and more mathematical along with a higher IQ
The Haydn Effect: Child is witty and quick on his feet, quite often bringing a grin to the faces of those around him. Despite this he exhibits remarkable humility.
The Bach Effect: Child memorizes Scripture and says his prayers every day; may overwhelm listeners with his speech.
The Handel Effect: Much like the Bach Effect; in addition, the child may exhibit dramatic behavior.
The Beethoven Effect: Child develops a superiority complex and is prone to violent tantrums; is a perfectionist.
The Liszt Effect: Child speaks rapidly and extravagantly, but never really says anything important
The Bruckner Effect: Child speaks very slowly and repeats himself frequently. Gains a reputation for profundity.
The Grieg Effect: This child is quirky yet cheery. May be prone toward Norwegian folklore.
The Wagner Effect: Child becomes a megalomaniac. Speaks for six hours at a stretch.
The Schoenberg Effect: Child never repeats a word until he has used all the other words in his vocabulary. Sometimes talk backwards or upside-down. Eventually people stop listening to him. Child blames them for their inability to understand him.
The Ives Effect: Child develops a remarkable ability to carry on several separate conversations at once.
The Stravinsky Effect: Child is prone to savage, guttural and profane outbursts that lead to fighting and pandemonium in preschool.
The Shostakovich Effect: Child only expresses themselves in parent-approved ways.
The Cage Effect: Childs says exactly nothing for 4 minutes and 33 seconds. Preferred by 9 out of 10 classroom teachers.
The Glass Effect: Child repeats one word over, and over, and over, and over....


More....
http://www.classicalmusicarticles.com/2010/05/how-to-keep-conductor-in-line.html

Chamber Music History

 
           Originally, chamber music referred to a type of classical music that was performed in a small space such as a house or a palace room. The number of instruments used were also few without a conductor to guide the musicians. Today, chamber music is performed very similarly in terms of the size of the venue and the number of instruments used. Typically, a chamber orchestra is composed of 40 or fewer musicians. Because of the limited number of instruments, each instrument plays an equally important role. Chamber music differs from a concerto or a symphony because it is performed by only one player per part.
Chamber music evolved from the French chanson, a vocal music comprising of four voices accompanied by a lute. In Italy, the chanson became known as canzona and evolved from its original form of vocal music into instrumental music often adapted for the organ.
During the 17th century, the canzona evolved into the chamber sonata performed on two violins plus a melody instrument (ex. cello) and harmony instrument (ex. harpsichord).
From the sonatas, specifically the trio sonatas, (ex. works by Arcangelo Corelli) evolved the string quartet which uses two violins, a cello and viola. Examples of string quartets are works by Franz Joseph Haydn.
In 1770, the harpsichord was replaced by the piano and the latter became a chamber music instrument. The piano trio (piano, cello and violin) then emerged evident in the works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert.
In the late 19th century, the piano quartet (piano, cello, violin and viola) emerged with the works of such composers as Antonín Dvorák and Johannes Brahms. In 1842, Robert Schumann wrote a piano quintet (piano plus string quartet).
During the 20th century, chamber music took on new forms combining different instruments including the voice. Composers such as Béla Bartók (string quartet) and Anton von Webern contributed to this genre.

Petrucci Music Library- Free Classical Music Library

The Petrucci Music Library is an internet-based collaborative music score library, and is currently the main project. You will find tens of thousands of scores composed by thousands of composers here, all available for free download.

Our goal is to create a virtual library containing all public domain music scores, as well as scores from composers who are willing to share their music with the world without charge. The Petrucci Music Library also encourages the exchange of musical ideas, both in the form of musical works and in their analysis. Feel free to post your analysis of a particular piece on the "discussion" pages, or join our forums for interactive discussion with the community.

Website:
http://imslp.org/wiki/

3 Ways to Find Classical Music

Getting into classical music can be a challenging task, especially for those who are unfamiliar with Bach, Mozart, and even Beethoven. Luckily, thanks to the marvels of modern technology, something that was once time consuming and rather intimidating, is now as simple as pushing a button. These few, but simple tips, can open up an abundance of classical music for you to listen, examine, and enjoy.
Tip #1

• Napster: My number one choice for finding music, I use Napster every day. You can find just about anything you want here - Bach, Mozart, Liszt, Beethoven, Handel, etc... You can search by artist, composer, title, and album. Napster also offers a classical music radio - a large list of randomly selected classical works. Napster has a free version from which to listen(www.free.napster.com), however the sound quality is less than CD quality, so some of the subtle nuances of the music is lost. The subscription service has several plans, but the lowest priced plan is just $5 a month.

Tip #2

• iTunes: If I find a song or an album I really like on Napster, in most cases, I can buy it directly from iTunes and transfer it to my iPod or burn it to a CD to listen to in the car.

Tip #3 When you're out shopping at Wal-Mart, Target, K Mart, Best Buy, or any other major retailer, you can find great classical music compilation CDs. These CDs usually feature "Most Popular" works and "Greatest Works of All Time" spanning the many periods and styles of classical music. You're sure to find something you'll like on one of these albums, in which case you can begin searching for other works by the same composer.

Sibelius vs. Finale: How To Choose?

I am constantly asked for guidance in choosing which of the two preeminent music prep software packages to adopt. There are other programs available, of course, but I would be leery of adopting upstarts, no matter how sexy the features, when there are veterans available. The race does not always go to the swift, since few users with careers built on software will want to master more every few years; neither do they want to abandon a body of work done in one format because it didn’t go the distance. Plus, unless one is musical hermit, one must deal with colleagues, and thus it pays to use what others use. So, from these tests alone, it boils down to Finale or Sibelius. Would that it were as simple a matter to distill it further. Space does not remotely permit an in-depth comparison at the moment, so let’s confine ourselves to the big picture.

This weekend one of my alma maters (San Diego State) played Notre Dame, a contest which, historically, would have seemed such a mismatch as to be impossible to schedule. However, the state university which has struggled throughout its history to become a big fish in successively bigger ponds going up against one of the great white sharks of college football history is a perfect allegory for Sibelius’s struggle to encroach on Finale’s turf. While the Aztecs ultimately lost, it wasn’t a blowout. Sibelius and Finale are like that. The latter has the longer history and hence the larger user base, but the former has the position of upstart and the mantle of innovator. So how does one choose?

One clue is that the documentation for Finale dwarfs that of Sibelius. All that extra verbiage exists to explain something, and is evidence of how Finale has survived on its “jack-of-all-trades-and-master-of-some” depth of features. It has always tried to be all things to all people, offering mixed blessings of power and flexibility purchased by a steep learning curve. Beyond its fledgling years, I have never worried about finishing a gig because Finale couldn’t do something. Plus, as I was a copyist before the first mouse came along, the good news was that Finale let me put symbols, as by hand, wherever I wanted. The bad news was it made me put the symbols, as by hand, wherever I wanted.

When Sibelius made its American debut at a NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) show some 10 years ago, and despite its unavailability for the Mac, I saw its potential and grilled its “people” for hours, Its approach was to do more of the thinking for the composer/copyist while limiting some of his options, while using a radically different code structure which sped up processing considerably. This gave it a reduced and simpler learning environment, making it attractive to newbies.

On the broadest levels, the struggle ever since has been each one pushing away from its comfortable extreme by incorporating features and approaches from the other in an attempt to grab market share, This has proven to be a net gain for all of us, as competition does wonders for the pace of development. If it weren’t for Sibelius, Finale wouldn’t have interactive score and part views within one file and, without Finale pointing the way, Sibelius wouldn’t have a scroll view giving more practical access to just the material desired.

If you insist on specifics, Sibelius’ strengths include a slightly more authentic and traditional look to its output, but you might have to remind yourself to notice. Its playback algorithms sound a bit more realistic. And its structure holds somewhat greater potential for my personal holy grail of a completely touch-typed score, a boon for both the visually-impaired as well as anyone who truly thirsts for speed and efficiency. However, the company’s history does not make me confident that it has the vision to pull it off anytime soon. Part of its power comes from placing graphic symbols by hanging them on notes (not just by absolute spacing within the bar,) which often requires the use of the old invisible “dummy note” routine.

Finale’s strengths are a much deeper set of features and, consequently, more ways to get things done. If you’re willing to do the requisite homework with FinaleScript, third-party macro programs (to automate tasks and manage details,) and Finale’s seemingly bottomless pit of skills, you can get it to do most of Sibelius’s tricks, and a lot more.

Ultimately, any solutions to the “Less Filling!/Tastes Great!” software debate really hinge on defining what kind of user you want to be. If you relate to your software as simply a toolbox to accomplish a finite set of gigs, you will probably want one that is smaller, less complicated, and requiring less time and learning to accomplish those so you can get on with life’s other pursuits. If so, Sibelius might be your cup of tea. On the other hand, if you look to your software as a source of personal and musical power, then you must decide whether you are the sort who would rather take the time and effort to become Superman rather than Batman (superheroes both, but hardly interchangeable.) If so, Finale may satisfy your craving for power.

Either way, you’re in for an adventure. Make your choice and dig in!