musixser: Voice-wise Music Entry For MusiXTeX Version 1.2 ============================================================== (C) Rainer Dunker (rainer.dunker@web.de), 2003 musixser (MusiXTeX SERial input) is a small TeX macro collection - meant as an add-on to MusiXTeX - which changes MusiXTeX's coding style from chord or "column" oriented to voice oriented. Each voice of a score (which nevertheless is allowed to contain chords) is entered as a separate "thread" of musical events, thus imposing a polyphonic flavour on music coding. Unlike PMX or M-Tx, musixser is no MusiXTeX preprocessor. It does not make any layout decisions; it merely rearranges the input and passes everything over to MusiXTeX. The underlying idea is the desire to combine the following two properties: 1. Provide an easier, more intuitive, polyphonic way of entering and editing MusiXTeX code. 2. Retain the full expressive power of the MusiXTeX language and its typesetting capabilities in direct user access. musixser is meant as an option for MusiXTeX users who -- for whatever reason -- can't or don't want to use any available preprocessor. Before you begin using it, you should be familiar with "plain" MusiXTeX. Main features are: - no inherent limitations concerning the number of voices total or per staff - efficient coding of repeated or recurrent musical structures, using patterns and loops - easy rearrangement of scores including (to some extent) part extraction - support for arbitrarily long scores Main new features of this version --------------------------------- - "For each" loops for repeated material (single events or patterns) - Shorthand syntax for pattern calls Usage ----- Included in this package is a user's manual in DVI format -- containing many music examples -- along with its LaTeX source. Even in case of difficulties with the music fonts, it should be possible to read the plain text in order to learn how musixser is installed and used. All kinds of comments, including suggestions and problem reports, are welcome. Please send them to: rainer.dunker@web.de