Scores

Prest reads MusicXML scores: .musicxml and .mxl files, and .xml files that are MusicXML. It plays the song and shows the score in time with it, with a cursor in the bar being played.

Add a score

1. Open the song first.
2. Choose Add stems in the toolbar and pick the score, or drop it on the window.

Expected result:

• Each part becomes a MIDI track named Score followed by the part, such as Score Soprano, its notes carrying their notation.
• The chord symbols go on the Chords lane.
• Rehearsal marks become sections on the Sections lane.
• Each part that sings gets a Lyrics track of its own, the lead’s first: Lyrics, then Lyrics 2, and so on.

Prest reads every bar as it is played: repeats, endings, D.C., D.S., and codas are unrolled, and each verse falls on its pass. Anything in the score that Prest does not keep, it says, starting with the file’s name. A score with no notes is not added. Each score added is one undo step.

The score starts at bar 1. A song with a tempo map keeps it, and the score’s bars fall on the song’s; Prest then says the score’s own tempo was left aside. A song without a tempo map takes the score’s tempo and time signatures.

The score’s bars stay as the score wrote them. A tempo map detected later, with PresTools’ Tempo tool, only times them: the Score tracks keep to their bars.

A Score track is a MIDI track: it can also send to your rig. PresTools’ Transcribe tool writes Score tracks too, from a stem: see Transcribe a stem to MIDI.

Read the score

1. Click a Score track’s name.
2. Choose the score button in the toolbar (Show the score, as it will be read on stage).

Expected result: the score panel opens under the tracks and shows that track’s part, engraved in rows, with each row’s first bar numbered. Until you click a Score track, it shows the first one. The bar being played is lit, and its row is kept in view.

• Click a bar to play from there.
• Drag the line above the score to give it more room or less.
• For a part on two staves, such as piano, choose Upper staff or Lower staff.
• Choose the score button again (Hide the score) to close the panel.

A cursor goes through the bar being played. In the score’s head, choose how:

• Bar: the bar played is lit, with no cursor.
• Flowing: a line glides through the bar with the music.
• Notes: a line moves from note to note.

Prest remembers on this computer whether the score is shown, its height, and the cursor you chose.

On the stage

On the stage screens, each Score track is a view of its own on the Performance page, named after the part, such as “Soprano”; a part on two staves gives an upper and a lower view. Each musician chooses their part on their own screen, and it follows the song with the bar playing lit. See Song views.

Next: PresTools in Prest.