Finale/XML

Errors
#1

I am running into a problem where Finale hides all of the accidentals upon opening an XML file generated from SCAMP. Other programs display them fine, and the pitches are correct - it only requires running the “respell notes” in Finale utility to display them. It’s a minor problem, but could this have to do with the XML version, and could it be fixed within SCAMP?

1 Like
#2

I’m not sure… the implementations of MusicXML in different score-writing programs are irritatingly inconsistent and incomplete. I wonder: could you make a simple XML export from SCAMP, open it in finale, run “respell notes” and then export musicXML? If that new, exported MusicXML file does open correctly in Finale, it would be helpful to compare the two versions.

#3

When running the utility and re-exporting, it does display the accidentals correctly. However, Finale exports them as .mxl files and they can’t be opened in a text editor. Still pretty minor, but if I find anything else I’ll make a note of it!

#4

It looks like that scamp xml export doesn’t encode <accidental> tag.
For example this f sharp has an alter tag with value 1, which guarantees correct playback but not correct displaying.

<note>
 <pitch>
	<step>F</step>
	<alter>1</alter>
	<octave>4</octave>
 </pitch>
 <duration>2</duration>
 <voice>1</voice>
 <type>half</type>
</note>
#5

Interesting… I guess in other programs like MuseScore, the absence of an tag leads to default accidental usage, but maybe in Finale it leads to no accidentals appearing at all?

Does anyone know if there’s a way to specify: “use an accidental in the normal default way”? Because I don’t really want to have to code (at least not right now) the procedures for when a new accidental is needed, when to use a cautionary accidental, etc.

#6

Oh pity -
I wish you had time and energy to add accidental attributes to pymusicxml library. Otherwise it’s not useful for some crucial occasions like in verovio library.

#7

Does verovio use MusicXML? I’ve honestly been a little bit confused about what it is

#8

yeah, it is meant to display mei, but it accepts musicxml, humdrum and abc as well

#9

In the meantime I realized: when scamp formatted musicxml loaded and exported again by MuseScore, it gets its necessary accidental tags.
For commandline and bash scripts this command (on os x) do the job:

/Applications/MuseScore3.app/Contents/MacOS/mscore “$fileName” --export-to “$fileName”