Music printing is an art that faces extinction. The techniques used for printing music in the Western world have varied through time…

In the early Middle Ages (c.800-1450) only the clergy and a few other people learned to read and write. As a result, most of the music notation written and decorated by hand in the illuminated manuscripts. The writing and decoration were either Gothic or Roman notation.

By the late 15^th century a technique evolved for printing music which called woodblock printing. The process contained writing or drawing music on a piece of wood in reverse. Reversing music was enabled to print a mirror image. The next process was carving the wood around the symbols, which made them elevated.  The completed woodcut than was inked, pressed on paper or vellum, and left to dry. The quality of music which printed by this technique depend from the woodcutter capability, improper inking, and printing of the woodcut.

In 1450, Johann Gutenberg invented the printing press. With moveable type every note, line, beam, etc. had to be assembled into a “puzzle.” The correct notes, lines, and other music symbols were lined up in the correct order of the written music. The music had to be assembled correctly from left to right and in reverse. After this, the types were locked together, placed on the printing press, inked, and pressed onto paper. The workers had to avoid errors, or they do not get paid for correction. Now it was possible to sell and distribute copies of music to more people.

The next technique used to print music was engraving. The process of engraving was to plan out the lines, spaces, and layout on paper where the page turns are also determined. Some of the music publishing companies such as G. Henle Verlag continued to engrave music by hand until the year 2000.

In 1796 Alois Senefelder invented the process of lithography. The process contained drawing an image, text, or music on a smooth piece of limestone with an oil-based ink. Next, acid was poured onto the stone to burn the image onto the surface. This followed by water soluble solution such as gum Arabic which was sticking only to the non-oily surface and sealing it. The water adhered to the gum Arabic but repelled from the oily ink which made printing images possible. As technology advanced, lithography evolved into other processes such as chromolithography, photolithography, and microlithography.

Lithography did not suit for every purpose so printing block were invented. They were more complex and sophisticated.  It was set together with all the text and special music type, than the stereotype cast was taken to print. Finally, these stereotype cast was stored for future use.

The appearance of the camera changed music again. Photo-lithography became a practical process to copy music which involved transferring a photo image to a stone or metal plate using chemicals and then treated to produce a printing surface.

Another method for printing music was the Halstan Process which created by Harold (Hal) Smith and his brother Stanley (Stan) Smith. First, the music was written out in blue pencil about four times its original size. After this, black ink was used to outline the blue markings than a photo was taken. The blue pencil markings did not appear on the photo and also the photo reduced in size. The proof was then used to duplicate the music.

Stencils also used for music printing. Although it was not popular the stenciled copy could be used to produce more copies using other methods such as lithography or photography. The process was slow but it provided consistency in the size of the notes, clefs etc.

People also used rubber stamps to print music. The stamps were dipped in ink and stamped onto an already printed staff paper.

The next development was the Letraset which was a dry transfer. The system that used for music called Notaset. It involved transferring characters that were fixed on transparent material by rubbing them down onto staff paper. Then a photograph was then taken and printed onto a zinc plate to make multiple copies.

During our history, handwritten music was always present. There are several books and instruction manuals about how to copy music by hand.

In the 19^th century, music typewriters were developed but they only become popular in the mid-1900s. There are several different models invented but there were two different concepts became standard. One was the Keaton Music Typewriter which looked quite different from a regular typewriter as it had two keyboards (one was moveable and one stationary). The other models were like a regular typewriter, only musical symbols employed instead of letters. Staff paper or blank paper was slipped in the carriage and the keys struck. After the music was printed on a music typewriter, the original was photographed or copied to make the extra copies necessary to distribute and sell.

With the advances in technology, many programs and software developed for music. The problem was that the early computers gave little visual feedback. The next development was the ILLIAC which was able to read the coded paper created by Musicwriter. An output paper was again placed in the Musicwriter and correctly formatted to print the music. With the improvement of the desktop computer, music notation developed again. In 1976, Armando dal Molin developed the MusiComp which used specifically for notating music. It consisted of two keyboards, left keyboard to set the pitch and the right keyboard which contained music symbols and letters. The music appeared on the screen, and the machine could store up to 30 pages of music in a microcassette. The Musicomp was used to provide ready-to-publish scores for several publishing companies. In the 1980s MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) appeared which allowed musicians to input music into a computer by connecting the computer to a music keyboard through MIDI cables. The next program was the Mockingbird which was capable of playing the music back and printing with a laser printer. The next step was the Professional Composer and it was successful as it used a mouse and several palettes on the computer screen to choose different symbols. In 1988, Phil Farrand developed Finale Version 1.0 for Coda Music Software. Music can be entered using a computer keyboard and mouse, or a MIDI keyboard. Music can be scanned, MIDI files can be imported and exported, and music can be played back using MIDI or samples from the Garritan library. The scores can be printed, or the audio can be exported to aif, wave, or .mp3. Videos and music can be synchronized in Finale as well. In 1993 Sibelius created. It can be used to create, edit, and print musical scores. It allows scores to be played back or turned into MIDI or audio files, and also to create a CD. In addition, scores can be synchronized to video or to audio. It has the ability to run and manage multiple copies of the software on a network and also a third-party software can be used to scan and create a Sibelius score from printed music. In 2015 StaffPad developed which recognizes handwritten music that is created directly on the tablet and converts it to a score. It allows the composer or arranger to edit, playback, print, and share the music.

With the development of score writer computer programs, music writing and publishing became easier. The copies became more accurate and accessible for a wide range of people.

Reference

Musicprintinghistory.org. 2020. Music Printing History. [online] Available at: <https://www.musicprintinghistory.org/&gt; [Accessed 5 July 2020]