Mozart the music processor
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| Mozart 14 Mozart 14 screenshot | |
| Original author(s) | David Webber |
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| Initial release | 9 November 1994 |
| Stable release | 14.0.17.0
/ 15 May 2019 |
| Written in | C++ |
| Operating system | MS Windows 7/8/8.1/10 |
| Available in | English, Czech, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Welsh ( EN, CS, CY, DA, DE, ES, FR, IT, NL, PT, SV ) |
| Type | Scorewriter |
| License | Proprietary |
| Website | www.mozart.co.uk |
Mozart the music processor is a proprietary WYSIWYG scorewriter program, which runs on computers running Microsoft Windows. It enables you to create, edit, and print musical notation and listen to it via MIDI.
The name of the program reflects its author's enjoyment of the clarinet, and possibly the greatest classical work for that instrument, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's clarinet concerto.
History
Origins
Mozart started in the late 1980s as a personal project to assist the 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 that you type the document, save it in a file, print it and, in this case, play it back through the computer's speakers. Accordingly, the QWERTY keyboard interface has always been considered primary, even though this is nowadays described less prominently as a set of keyboard shortcuts in a program with a standard graphical user interface facilitating input via the computer keyboard, the mouse, or a MIDI device.
Following the advent of the internet, Version 1 was released to the world on 9 November 1994.
Development
Mozart 1, in 1994, was all its author's own idea of what a music processor should be. It proved popular but it was not long before many of those acquiring it began to say on Mozart's internet chat/support group Wouldn't it be nice if it could also... followed by an avalanche of exciting ideas for future development. In this way, Mozart's development in the following decades has been strongly driven by the needs of its users.
Since the 2011 publication of Elaine Gould's Behind Bars[1], this excellent book has been used as the primary guide to developing and maintaining high quality music engraving in Mozart.
Time line
Since the initial release in 1994, new major versions have been released regularly. Intermediate free service packs are issued as needed.
- 2018: Mozart 14 - automates proportional spacing
- 2016: Mozart 13 - introduces the ribbon bar interface
- 2014: Mozart 12
- 2011: Mozart 11
- 2010: The Mozart Jazz Font is introduced
- 2009: Mozart 10
- 2006: Mozart 9
- 2004: Mozart 8 - aka Mozart 2005
- 2003: Mozart 7
- 2002: The Mozart Viewer/Reader is released: a free program which will view, print, and play Mozart (.mz) files.
- 2001: Mozart 6
- 2000: Mozart 5
- 1999: Mozart 4
- 1997: Mozart 3
- 1996: Mozart 2 - now a 32bit program for Windows 95
- 1994: Mozart 1 - a 16bit program for Windows 3.1
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,[2], 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
- Large and extensible library of score templates
- Support for a large collection of transposing instruments [3]
- Support for Tablature notation, chord symbols, chord shapes, and percussion.
- Support for a large 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[4]
- Support for foot pedal page turners
Limitations
- Limited control over MIDI events
- The time signature must be common to all parallel staves
- No Gregorian chant notation
- No quarter tone notation
See also
References
- ^ Elaine Gould. Behind Bars: The Definitive Guide to Music Notation, Faber Music Ltd, London, 2011.
- ^ NIFF – History, features, programs supporting NIFF
- ^ Alfred Blatter, Instrumentation and Orchestration, 2nd edition, Schirmer 1997
- ^ Toal, Lawrence (21 January 2010). "WineHQ – Mozart the Music Processor Mozart 10". Wine HQ. Retrieved 26 January 2010.
