Composer's Mosiac, Version 1.58, Music Notation Software for Macintosh

Abstract

Composer's Mosaic, version 1.58, music notation software for Macintosh. Cambridge, Mass.: Mark of the Unicorn, 1998. $595 (academic price, $250; upgrade from other notation programs, $149). Requires 68020-based Macintosh or faster (PowerPC Macintosh recommended), 8 MB RAM, and system 7.0 or higher (System 7.5 or higher recommended). Composer's Mosaic music notation software is a high-quality, intermediate-level application appropriate for academic music computer labs using the Macintosh platform. Available since 1992, it replaces Mark of the Unicorn's ground-breaking, though rudimentary, Professional Composer of the 1980s. A vast improvement over its predecessor, Mosaic deserves its place among the company's line of widely respected music software and hardware products, which includes the Performer and FreeStyle sequencing programs and the new Audio 2408 24-bit cross-platform digital hard-disk recording system. Mosaic's graphical interface is ostensibly typical of most music-notation applications. The user begins by constructing a score layout of measured staves and systems that can be assembled manually or chosen from a pop-up list of customizable templates. Clefs, measure numbers, text items, instrument ranges, transpositions, parts, MIDI channels, and synthesizer patches may be configured and saved with the score as a default setup or as a template that can be shared between scores. There is no limit to score length, page size, number of staves, or number of voices per staff, and all elements may be added, deleted, or modified at any time. While templates are essential tools for the veteran copyist, they are probably underutilized in academic music labs. Their conspicuous placement here as a list of options in the New Setup dialog box may help promote their discovery and exploration. Not as immediately apparent, however, is the way in which new score layouts and templates initially are constructed. As its name implies, Mosaic organizes functions in a partitioned mosaic of operational modes. Voices, staves, and views are configured in separate windows, then linked or combined in various ways to produce a score. Voice parameters are assigned in the Voices window, for example, then dragged to the Staves window and attached to corresponding staves. Display options are handled in the Views window, where multiple galley (sometimes called scroll), page, and part views can be set to display any combination of staves and zoom levels (from 20 to 800 percent) simultaneously. A score and all of its instrumental parts may be open on the desktop at the same time, and any changes are automatically reflected in all views. This modularity provides considerable flexibility, but because it is not intuitive, many users will likely have difficulty recalling which mode does what. Note and symbol entry are generally fast and straightforward. Movable palettes provide access to articulations, dynamics, text modes, and groupings. Notes can be clicked into the score with the mouse, step-entered with the computer keyboard or a MIDI device, or played in real time from a MIDI device. A continuous stream of empty measures expands as notes and rests are entered, and the program automatically spaces in a manner that approaches an engraver's standard. Real-time MIDI note entry employs an automated high-resolution quantization scheme that captures even extensive, complex passages with exceptional accuracy. Though the preset transcription algorithms cannot be overridden, most users will find adjustments unnecessary. Even so, step-entering pitches from the MIDI keyboard while keying note values from the computer keyboard is still the most common and often fastest method of entering readable music into a notation program. Notes, rests, dots, ties, and non-metrical groupings are easily entered in this way without having to switch modes. To save time, stem-direction and beam-grouping preferences may be set, though chromatic defaults may not. …