Forum: music.stackexchange.com
Tags: <notation><software>
Title: What music notation software allows you to code the notation?
Question: I saw a recent notation software product that seemed to offer a novel and concise way to code your music notation. I can't find it so I'm reaching out for your help.

Answers:
sents: text: There is LilyPond which does what you are looking for.
text: It was first released on 1996, but it still gets updates.
text: LilyPond is a computer program and file format for music engraving.
text: One of LilyPond's major goals is to produce scores that are engravedwith traditional layout rules, reflecting the era when scores wereengraved by hand.
text: LilyPond is cross-platform, and is available for several commonoperating systems; released under the terms of the GNU General PublicLicense, LilyPond is free software.
text: Wikipedia On the Wiki page
text: , there is a nice example with some code and the outcome, but it's too big to post here.
text: We have had many questions tagged lilypond in this site, so you can look through these to get a general idea.
text: There is also ABC Notation , which is text-based notation (not exactly coding), like: X:1T:Speed the PloughM:4/4C:
text: Trad.
text: K:
text: G|:GABc dedB|dedB dedB|c2ec B2dB|c2A2 A2BA| GABc dedB|dedB dedB|c2ec B2dB|A2F2 G4:||:g2gf gdBd|g2f2 e2d2|c2ec
text: B2dB|c2A2 A2df| g2gf g2Bd|g2f2 e2d2|c2ec B2dB|A2F2 G4:| and gets you the result:
answer_details: author: music.stackexchange.com/users/7356/Shevliaskovic
score: 22
sents: text: I have not personally used any of them yet, but there are multiple packages for typesetting music with LaTeX .
answer_details: author: music.stackexchange.com/users/10660/ojdo
score: 4
sents: text: As mentioned previously, LilyPond might meet your specifications.
text: For one thing, its input is text form, something which some people equate with "programming"
text: (for example, the answer proposing MusicXML does not make any sense without that assumption).
text: For another, one of its implementation languages is Scheme (more exactly, Guile), and Scheme is immediately accessible in its source files as an extension language useful for algorithmic programming.
text: One example of mixing music and programming is in this unrelated answer to a StackExchange question.
text: Sorry for not linking to LilyPond and Guile, but my reputation allows only for 2 links, so I had to be selective.
answer_details: author: music.stackexchange.com/users/25380/user25380
score: 2
sents: text: An older option is MUP , which has been kicking around since 1995 and is now open-source freeware.
text: It takes in an input file that looks like this and outputs a PostScript file that looks like this .
text: Note, however, that PostScript is something of an older file format, and you may need to download an extra piece of software to view the files and/or convert them to a different format.
text: On Mac OS, the built-in "Preview" application will do it, but I'm not sure what the equivalent software would be on a Windows or Linux system.
answer_details: author: music.stackexchange.com/users/21557/Michael Seifert
score: 1
sents: text: MusicXML, in any text editor, is my favorite way to "code" music.
text: A tutorial can be found here .
text: When your code is complete, you can import it into almost any music editing software such as MuseScore, Sibelius, or Noteflight.
answer_details: author: music.stackexchange.com/users/25260/OldBunny2800
score: 1
sents: text: Trinket allows you to write music with code.
text: It's rather small at the moment
text: but it works well for smaller projects.
text: I haven't noticed any development though in the last few months
text: so I'm not sure if they mean to continue it.
answer_details: author: music.stackexchange.com/users/10339/codedude
score: 0

Summary of the answers:
Notation software that allows you to code the notation includes LilyPond.  LilyPond is cross-platform, and is available for several commonoperating systems; released under the terms of the GNU General PublicLicense, LilyPond is free software.  Others are MUP, MusicXML and Trinket.
There are maycomputer program and file format for music engraving.