MusicTEX
Using TEX to write polyphonic
or instrumental music
Version 5.04 – January 31, 2023

• Contents
• What is MusicTEX ?
  • MusicTEX principal features
    • Music typesetting is two-dimensional
    • The spacing of the notes
    • Music tokens, rather than a readymade generator
    • Beams
    • Setting anything on the score
  • A simple example
  • Some highlights
    • Signatures
    • Transposition
    • Selecting special instrument scores
    • Variable staff and note sizes
  • How to get it
  • Enhancements
    • Recent easy enhancements
    • The tie/slur problem
    • Enhancement limitations
  • Acknowledgements
  
  
• Practical use
  • Heading statements
  • Before you begin to write notes
    • Instrument names
    • Polyphonic songs
  • Starting your masterpiece
    • Typing the first system
    • Easy selecting note spacing
  • Note pitch specification
  • Writing notes
    • Single (spacing) notes
    • Non-spacing (chord) notes
    • Shifted non-spacing (chord) heads
    • Shifted notes
    • Non-spacing single notes
    • Pointed notes
  • Beams
    • Fixed slope beams
    • Repeated pattern beams
    • Semi-automatic beams
  • Rests
    • ordinary rests
    • Lifted rests
  • Phantom notes
  • Collective coding: sequences of notes
  • Accidentals
  • Transposition and octaviation
  • Ties and slurs
    • Standard and nicer slurs
    • Problem with large slur ends
    • Weird slurs and ties
    • Refined slurs for clever typesetters
  • Bars
    • Bars and spacing
    • Bar numbering
    • Full and instrument divided bars
  • Line and page breaking
  • Changing score attributes
  • Repeats
    • Elementary and unsafe solutions
    • Safe and correct coding
    • Specific first and second pass scoring
    • Large scope repeats
  • Miscellaneous
    • Putting anything anywhere
    • Metronomic indications
    • Usual ornaments
    • New line synchronization of coding
    • Beams across bars
  • Small and tiny notes
    • Cadenzas and explicit ornaments
    • Grace notes
    • Gregorian note shapes
    • Percussion stemless note shapes
    • Other note shapes
  • Staff size
    • Moving from 20pt to 16pt general staff sizes and conversely
    • Changing staff size for certain instruments
  • Layout parameters
    • List of layout parameters
    • Changing layout parameters
    • Changing the vertical distance between consecutive systems
    • Changing staff distance within systems
    • Changing the number of lines in staffs
    • Resetting normal layout parameters
    • Typesetting one-line excerpts rather than larges scores
    • Lyrics
  • Other special ornaments
  • Abnormal music coding
    • Gregorian chant
    • Music score without clefs or with special clefs
    • Usual percussion music
  • Writing your own macros: the normalshapemediumseries\catcode problems
  • MusiclaTEX
    • The musictex.sty style
    • Wide music in L^ATEX
    • The normalshapemediumseries\catcode problems
  • Implementation and restrictions
  
  
• Installation
• Examples
• Summary of denotations
  • Pitches
  • Notes and Rests
  • Other symbols