As a part-time music teacher, I find there is often a need to write out pieces for pupils; in addition, some arranging of ensemble parts is called for. Writing out bars and bars of manuscript is a time-consuming job and very laborious when accurate layout is needed, as in the case of scores, when alignment of the parts is vital. What better, then, with the Beeb sitting there, than to have a program to take some of the slog out of all this and produce clear and accurately laid out copies?

The existence of programs for other (more powerful) machines was already known, but the arrival on the scene of such a program for the BBC series presented an opportunity not to be missed. The requirements were modest indeed: a BBC Micro and either a 9-pin or 24-pin Epson-compatible graphics printer. My own setup of a Master 128 with 6502 co-processor, twin 80-track disc drives and an Epson MX-100 looked encouraging. Still, as a result of previous unfavourable experiences with certain programs, I would need convincing that this program would really do what was claimed before buying a copy. The opportunity to get some hands-on experience was kindly provided by Beebug and what follows is the result.

The package consists of an attractive book-style container, housing the ROM, an Issue Disc and a User Guide; there are also some labels for attaching to copies of the system disc generated from the Issue Disc.

After opening the User Guide and taking a quick look at the Introduction, I studied the Installation section. The immediate impression was of a well written and presented Guide, which runs to 70 pages (admittedly not all used).

Following the instructions, the ROM was duly inserted into one of my external cartridges. The Issue Disc was in 40/80 track DFS format. Being used to ADFS, I wondered if it could be backed up onto ADFS, but this did not work, so DFS was selected and the system booted by the Shift/Break method. Nothing happened, so I switched off my Tube and started again. This time, things began to whirr.

The program requires a DFS formatted disc to become a 'System disc' (for which the labels were supplied). Following the instructions on the screen, and a short time later, the message "Generation complete" appeared. I now had a start-up disc, synonymous with the System disc mentioned above.

The start-up disc contains a number of musical examples as well as five standard templates for such layouts as a single stave with treble clef, keyboard (treble and bass clefs with curly brackets) and so on, up to string quartet and four-part choir.

In Section 3, "Getting Started", one is led through booting the disc and loading an example of a Bach Two-Part Invention to examine both the means of inputting the code and the end result on-screen. On booting, a menu appears, clearly laid out, giving a choice of clearing, loading, saving, or editing a score; in addition, there is a facility to sef-up page, an item start bar: 0, preview score and print score. Selection is by means of the cursor keys and Return.

A brief examination of the material on screen whetted my desire to enter some music of my own; the procedure seemed very logical, so I loaded the single line template and began input. The program uses two categories of code for entering the music in a word processing form, called out-bar and in-bar. Section 7 explains that out-bar refers to "overall aspects of the score such as the title, number of parts etc.", whilst the in-bar codes are for the actual entry of notes, rests and so forth. One great advantage of the system is that it works just like a word processor, so any alterations, additions or deletions can be made at any time.

Indeed, it is even suggested that editing could be done on a word processor, thereby making use of more powerful functions like copying (repeating) identical bars. The file is stored in ASCII format.

I duly entered and corrected a short tune - the program advises the user when mistakes are made, such as the incorrect total of note values in a bar. Using the preview score facility enables instant inspection bar by bar, to check the input. Another welcome feature is that the stems on notes automatically follow the usual convention and groups of quavers and shorter notes are correctly beamed. The user has an option of overriding these facilities when necessary.

Perhaps it is time to examine the means of entry a little more closely. Section 4 deals with this in a very clear way. By selecting clear score, the memory is cleared, then edit score produces the out-bar codes at the bottom half of the screen:

Title
chy Composer
{tl) ; stave: treble clef & 1 part
{c=90) ; metronome marking, e.g.(c.=80)
(0) ; key signature, e.g. (+1),(-1)
(4/4) ; time signature, e.g.(3/4),(6/8)
[1
]

The 't', followed immediately by the chosen title, places the title centrally in double width script. On the next line, the details following 'c" will be printed right-justified below the title. If not required, this can either be left blank or the line can be omitted. Then choose the number of staves and clefs (note that the semicolons are comment markers, i.e. everything which follows is ignored by the program). Up to six parts can be written, in treble, alto, tenor or bass clefs. The '(c=90)' represents the metronome marking of 90 crotchets per minute, the example in brackets using the dotted crotched as the unit. The key signature is defined by '+' and '-' for sharps and flats respectively, followed by the number required, up to a maximum of 7. The sharps or flats are then placed automatically, according to clef. Changes of key signature within a piece can be accommodated and are preceded by a double bar. First-time and second-time bars can also be produced.

The first (empty) bar is then indicated, ready to begin writing. For the purpose of entering the notes, a range from 1 to 6 has been chosen for the octave in which the note is to be placed. For example, middle C would appear as 4C and that an octave higher would be 5C, all the intervening notes being prefixed by 4. Accidentals are denoted by +, -, and = respectively for sharp, flat and natural, these preceding the note which they qualify. The note values allowed are from semibreve to hemidemisemiquaver and are coded: w, m, c, q, s, d and h. Note the 'w' (whole note) which avoids confusion with semiquaver. If a dotted quaver F sharp above middle C were chosen, the code would be: q.4+F.

It is unnecessary to repeat the figure for the pitch definition within a bar unless notes outside the chosen octave are to follow. In this case, there is a choice of techniques to perform this task, either by prefixing with a different figure or by using the relative codes " and '," for higher and lower octaves. The rests corresponding to the above note values are written simply by preceding 'R' by the length code. The program caters for percussion notes by using 'x' and triplets are produced by a '/' between the affected notes. Chords and arpeggios are easily produced by adding further characters.

Some further features are slurs and ties, staccato and tenuto signs, pauses and trill signs. Changes of register and pedal marks are also provided. Lyrics can also be added to song parts. When using lyrics, it may be necessary to remove portions of the beams which normally group quavers and shorter notes. This is achieved by inserting a 'g' (for gap) at the appropriate point.

Returning to my first efforts and completing the short tune and editing it bar-by-bar, I wondered how the hard copy would look. I referred to the set-up page instructions in Section 6 of the Guide to find that settings could be made, which would be saved and automatically re-loaded in future, for my Epson 9-pin printer and paper width. There is a note to the effect that Music Publisher does not fully use the additional resolution of the 24-pin printer but the smaller pin size is used to produce finer and more accurate stave lines. After setting and saving these options I selected print score.

This option prints out the current score, using the start bar and set-up page parameters, and offers a choice of single-strike (quick) or double-strike (slower but denser) mode; printing can be terminated at any time by pressing Escape. It was at this point that I hit a snag: title and other textual heading features appeared, followed by a carriage return and one '@'. Hmm.....

On contacting Hybrid Technology, who asked for my printer manual to check the coding necessary for the bit-image graphics printing mode, I learned that my MX-100 could not be made to function (a problem inside the printer's ROM, they said). They kindly lent me an Epson FX-80 but in spite of trying every trick I knew, like *UNPLUGging other ROMs which might be incompatible, and using both serial and parallel data transfer, this didn't work either. Out of desperation, I took up an offer to visit a friend with a Kaga Taxan KP-810 (attached to a M128) and, finally - success!

The concept of the program and the means of entering the musical notation are very commendable; and it must be said that the User Guide is very well produced and easily understood. It takes very little time and practice to become quite adept at producing the required layout. With reasonable touch-typing facility, notation is at least as quick as with hand-written efforts and much better presented.

Three features I would have liked to have, but which were sadly missing, were:

1. Accents and "hairpins" for cresc. and dim. (I made do with actually entering written abbreviations as above in place of lyrics, followed by some dots showing the duration of the changes).
2. Ornament signs (mordents, etc.) and the ability to produce grace-notes.
3. Transposition. I suppose one can't have everything on the modest Beeb, with its limited RAM, but when arranging for families of instruments, as I do, it would be highly desirable.

I also wonder what could be done to make use of such enhancements as ADFS and, possibly, a second processor. Bearing in mind the problems involved in transferring graphics data across the Tube, there may well be reasons for excluding it.

As is the case with all utilities, it comes down to the personal requirements of the user. For many, Music Publisher would be very helpful as a means to producin good, clear and well laid-out music, and to be able to run off a copy at will is an advantage. In terms of value for money, it also seems reasonably priced. For my personal needs, I would prefer to have a program with those items mentioned above, certainly those in (1) and (2), which surely ought to be given serious consideration by the program writers. In conclusion, after my problems with obtaining hard copy (after all, that's the main object), I should insist on the program being demonstrated to work on my setup before parting with my cash.