Igor Music Notation Software, Version 1.3 (review)

Igor Music Notation Software, Version 1.3Noteheads Musical Expert Systems AB, Sveavägen 166, SE-113 46 Stockholm, Sweden; telephone (+46) 8-50-30-33-05; electronic mail info@noteheads.com; World Wide Web www.noteheads.com

About three or four years ago, I made the decision to begin engraving my scores on the computer. In the course of investigating the options then available, I came across the Web site of a Swedish company that was developing a music notation program named Igor. It described the benefits of the software, and included a list of features comparing it to other programs. Although the list was impressive, Igor was still in development while Finale had been shipping for many years. I bought the latter, and still use it today.

I remained curious about Igor, however, and often returned to the Web site to check on its development. As time went by, the shipping date was repeatedly delayed and the company went through a number of management crises. It began to look like Igor was vaporware that would never actually make it to market. So I was surprised and curious last year when version 1.0 was finally released as a review. My excitement quickly turned to disappointment, however, when I was not even able to open the sample documents without a major computer crash. Thankfully, the programmers at Noteheads, the company that produces Igor, have continued to upgrade the software since then. The most recent release, version 1.3, has gone a long way toward increasing stability and to realizing the features that were promised years ago.

Perhaps the most significant change to take place is the pricing of the program. Originally advertised as costing several hundred dollars, it is now available for download over the internet at no charge: from vaporware to freeware in just a few short years! The current business model requires users to register for free, which allows them to publish and distribute their music over the Internet on Notehead's server using Igor's "save as HTML" feature. Prospective customers can use a free Reader application to search for and evaluate pre-purchase copies of scores that contain watermarks and other anti-theft features. They can then purchase these scores if they wish--sort of like Napster without the copyright infringement. It remains to be seen whether Noteheads can actually make money with this plan, especially with Coda and Sibelius (among others) actively pursuing a similar strategy.

The software itself is remarkable in a number of ways. The designers have taken a unique approach to several aspects of the program design, setting it apart from its competitors. In my opinion, the most significant of these is the way in which music is entered. This task is common to all users of a notation program and it is also normally how one spends most of one's time when working on a score. Igor's innovation is to allow one to notate the majority of musical elements from the computer keyboard without having to change tools. At the same time as notes are entered, one may also add dynamics (including crescendo and decrescendo wedges), phrase markings, and articulations, for example. This is the equivalent of Finale's "speedy edit" feature, except that in Finale only notes and durations may be entered: elements such as staccato markings, for instance, require one to take the mouse, switch to another tool, and then click on one note at a time to place the articulations. After working with it for only a short time, Igor's approach seems natural and logical. It resembles nothing so much as touch-typing on a computer as compared to a manual typewriter. On the typewriter your hand has to constantly leave the keyboard to make carriage returns, while on the computer you are able to type in a continuous stream.

Another interesting approach to a basic feature of notation is Igor's means of creating and saving scores...