Scoring Notes

• Cleo Huggins, the designer of the first music font [encore]

  We talk a lot about fonts on the Scoring Notes podcast. But there was a time when there were no music fonts. And then, there was one. Cleo Huggins, on the staff of Adobe in 1986, designed Sonata, the very first music font. It’s hard to imagine today, but it was revolutionary at the time, and a leading industry publication called it the “Music Product of the Year”. Sonata provided the blueprint for the core music fonts later created for use in Finale and Sibelius, but it may surprise you to learn that Sonata was created without any one particular music software product in mind. Cleo tells Philip Rothman and David MacDonald about her early studies with some of the great typographic experts of the 1970 and 1980s, and how her work in graphic design, 3-D animation, background as a violinist, and a key meeting with Steve Jobs about the launch of the first Macintosh computer all led to her taking responsibility for creating Sonata. Cleo discusses the revolution in PostScript technology and the introduction of the laser printer, and how that made it possible for her to create a high quality music font that was unconstrained by limitations of bitmapping. She recalls the various sources of inspiration and research she did — everything from Bach’s manuscript to the Music Writer, to Notaset dry transfer sheets — and the process of regularizing beautiful calligraphy without losing the distinctive elements of music notation. She also recalls thinking about all the minute details from careful placement to the key mapping of each character, and the feedback received from early music software pioneers eager to incorporate Sonata into their programs. Cleo’s career moved on from Sonata to a variety of endeavors, all propelled by a deep curiosity and propensity to good, and we talk about that too — and ask her if she’d ever come back to the world of music fonts, with all of the progress that has taken place in the nearly four decades since her groundbreaking work transformed the history of music notation. More on Scoring Notes: Music Type Foundry fonts newly revised and re-released Download and install all Finale fonts on Mac and Windows MuseScore Studio 4.6 adds full SMuFL support, other engraving and playback updates Cantorum, a plainchant font for Dorico Introducing Lelandia, a new suite of music fonts for Sibelius Daniel Spreadbury on music fonts: past, present, and future Music fonts and open standards with Daniel Spreadbury A brief history of music notation on computers Back to the future of music notation on computers How to make a SMuFL font A fount of fonts at Notation Central Introducing the Norfolk and Pori chord symbol fonts for Sibelius — and an angled slash variant From the Finale Blog: Meet Steve Peha, creator of Petrucci, Finale’s first music font A brief history of Finale fonts

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• The lowdown on updates

  Recent updates abound in Dorico, MuseScore Studio, Sibelius, and across the Apple operating systems. Whether you use all of these products or just one of them, we help you get current with the latest features and improvements, so that you can make the most of the notation software and the operating systems they run on. More from Scoring Notes: Music notation software and macOS Tahoe Dorico 6.1: Select more MuseScore Studio 4.6 adds full SMuFL support, other engraving and playback updates Sibelius 2025.7 brings note spacing control, UI updates Sibelius updated to 2025.8 File system tools mentioned: Onyx CleanMyMac

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• With freelancing comes responsibility

  Freelancing is a kind of freedom. Freedom from a regular schedule, an office, or a permanent boss. But with freelance work comes responsibility. Part of your job as a freelancer is deciding what the work should be and finding the clients who are going pay you to do it. Not only are you responsible to them, but you’re responsible for yourself, your family, the tax man, and more. In the music notation software and related technology world of Scoring Notes, it’s possible to have freelance work in which those tools are used regularly. Paul Beck is principal librarian of the Milwaukee Symphony, concert librarian for Renée Fleming, and formerly librarian at, among other institutions, The Metropolitan Opera, The Juilliard School, and the Aspen Music Festival & School. Paul joins Philip Rothman and David MacDonald to talk all about his decades of experience both as a freelance music preparer and salaried performance librarian, and to offer a wealth of insights and practical advice for anyone seeking freedom — and responsibility — as a freelancer. This wide-ranging and detailed conversation explores the methods and manners of pursuing freelance work; the differences and similarities among being a freelancer, independent contractor, part-time employee, and full-time employee — and the benefits and drawbacks of each; managing your time and boundaries as a freelancer; the importance of mentors; essential tools; and specific advice about finances, invoices, and payment processing options. More from Scoring Notes: An interview with librarian Paul Beck Road report: Copland’s Rodeo in Milwaukee How to charge for music preparation Chronology of a perfect music printing job The tale of the tape The staples of printing self-published music

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• You have questions, we have answers

  We open the Scoring Notes mailbag, contemplate the musings of our audience, and try to leave no question unanswered in this fun and informative podcast episode. More from Scoring Notes, referenced in this episode: Finale’s twilight zone: Ensuring a smooth ride into the sunset Using Finale in the unsupported era Leaving Finale behind The rights stuff, with Jim Kendrick Scanning the current OMR landscape Partying with parts, part 1 Partying with parts, part 2 Working with page numbers in Sibelius Better Sibelius slurs for opposite stem direction on outer notes Marie Chupeau and the human side of Newzik’s artificial intelligence From “zero to slice”: Soundslice takes on optical music recognition with AI Sibelius 2022.5 brings multi-section headers, other workflow boosts

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• Send us your questions! (plus a classic episode)

  Have you ever listened to an episode of the Scoring Notes podcast and wished you could ask a question directly on the show? Two years ago, we opened up the phone lines directly, so to speak, and they were jam-packed! So much so, that we ended up devoting three episodes to answering those burning queries. You can find Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 in the podcast archives. Well, time and technology moves fast, so it’s time we do it again. Whether you’re a “long-timer” or a “first-timer”, all are welcome to ask a question about anything in the world of music notation software and related technology — or really, any one of the adjacent subjects we’ve covered on the Scoring Notes podcast or web site, and we may feature it an upcoming episode. Just record your question as a voice memo and drop it directly here, or send it as an email attachment or as a file-sharing link to [email protected]. We’d love it if you provide your name (first name only is OK), where in the world you’re calling from, and what music notation software you use — or if you don’t use it at all (yes, we have quite a few listeners in that camp). If you’re shy, you can alternatively write your question in an email and send it to us. Send us your question no later than Monday, July 14, 2025. From the archive: How we don’t use music notation software (but do use related technology) The rest of today’s episode is a classic one from March 2023, and perhaps it will spur some new questions. Sometimes music notation software is perfect for the job, but other times, it’s the related technology that’s better suited to the task. Fortunately, we cover both sides of the equation on Scoring Notes — and it’s the latter part that Philip Rothman and David MacDonald discuss on this podcast episode. When creating scores and parts, music notation software is clearly the choice. But what about front matter — the pages of text and sometimes other markings and symbols that preface the music? For that, better options may exist. We look at the pros and cons of making that material directly in music notation software, and suggest apps for when it’s helpful to split the job. We talk about some of our favorite apps specifically for working with PDFs and the surprising number of ways that you can edit a file using those apps — and may need to do so — without actually having access to the music notation files or the software. What about when you need to make music notation outside of notation software? For that, there is a whole suite of fonts designed to create music notation within non-music apps. They’re called MusFonts, and Dan Kreider created them to fill this niche. For many users, creating audio is an essential component of music notation software, and we outline ways to complement the built-in process of making MIDI mockups with other software without getting too complicated. Finally, we give a shout-out to our favorite piece of related technology. More from Scoring Notes: Export PDF to true black in Finale, and a macro for all parts Fix printing problems with Sibelius, PDFs, and Acrobat Quickly scale many PDFs with PDF-BatchScale Make booklets and 2-ups with PDF-BatchBooklet PDF-MusicBinder and PDF-BatchStitch utilities for music printing File renaming and PDF batch utilities MusGlyphs, an advanced music text font MusGlyphs updated to 2.1; text version added MusAnalysis, an advanced font for musical analysis MusFrets, a font for chord diagrams Introducing Ambitus, a new font for pitch incipits, scales, and range diagrams Preparing teaching materials in music notation software “Playing” with notation software, part 1 of 2 “Playing” with notation software, part 2 of 2 Apps and fonts we talk about: Microsoft Word Apple Pages Affinity Adobe Acrobat PDF-BatchScale PDF-BatchStitch PDF-BatchBooklet PDF-MusicBinder PDF Squeezer PDF Expert MusGlyphs MusAnalysis MusFrets Ambitus

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