Popular Mechanics, September 1923, pp 433–434
15 Likes
Music type was used from the late 16th century onwards: in many cases the note and its staff lines were one piece of type, leading to a higgledy-piggledy sequence of broken lines across the page.
The modern revival of music type, often seen in Novello and other scores in the 19th and early 20th century, are not the high point of engraving, but perfectly serviceable.
1 Like
Love the caption for the shape notes example.
1 Like
I used to use a music typewriter back in the day. What a pain🙄
1 Like
I did hand copying with my faithful Osmiroid for years and years. Tried a MusicWriter typewriter and it sucked. My first program was PolyWriter by Passport Designs then in a few years moved to Finale. Now I’m on Dorico but I still keep my pencil and paper handy (I use a tablet too with StaffPad and Mobile Sheets installed). Indeed we have come a long way.
1 Like
Pencil and score paper are indeed still practial, as you say🙂
1 Like
Mind-blowing how it was made even not long ago:
11 Likes
I learn so much here. Such a small number of people and so much music…. All the parts and time required- And I get the by hand option, but that seemed insurmountable the first attempt I made just for a jazz band.
Thank you for sharing 
While we have come a long way in many respects, the integration of notation and playback has taken us backwards.
I fear that there’s now never going to be notation software that can reproduce nearly all mainstream scores with ease, let alone do more or less anything that’s possible with pencil and paper.
One wonders what the Dorico team might have been able to achieve unencumbered with playback.
Machine learning might be able to help with things like OCR and transcription from audio (i.e. getting the information into the software) but it’s not so obvious what can be done for music on the page.
I’m particularly interested in exactly how the inestimable advantages of Dorico’s playback capabilities has taken the notation side backwards but never mind…
2 Likes
I actually have a Henle plate to a page from Clara Schumann op. 20, published in their Selected Piano Works, pg 69. (Hehe) It is kinda cool to see the end result of all that!
14 Likes
What a treasure!
2 Likes
What’s the story of how you got this? 
3 Likes
I bought it at the Julliard Store in NYC. It doesn’t look like they have any in stock right now though.
3 Likes
The amazing thing about plate engraving to me is that everything had to be engraved backwards. It still kind of blows my mind. That’s a beautiful ‘treasure’ indeed.
4 Likes
Wow!!!
1 Like
How heavy is it?
Just weighed it on my kitchen scale and it was 1 lb 8.6 oz. Obviously it has to be soft enough to engrave, but it was softer than I had expected when I got it.
2 Likes