Score format: ****we accept scores in MusicXML format. This format can be exported from many notation programs, e.g. Finale, Sibelius, MuseScore, Dorico.

Score verification: After you have the MusicXML file ready (exported from your notation program), please open it in MuseScore and play it. If it doesn't play correctly in MuseScore (e.g. wrong notes, wrong tempo), then please fix the problem and export the fixed MusicXML. MuseScore is free, you can download it here.

Repeats: Repeats are not supported. All repeats should be unrolled (e.g. using MuseScore you can do this automatically using Tools → Unroll Repeats).

Tempo: Any tempo markings in the score will be interpreted like in other notation software. Examples:♩=120, ****or Allegro (♩=120), or just Allegro.

The actual tempo that will be used can be controlled separately from the text. E.g. in MuseScore you can set this in the Inspector:

You can also use invisible tempo markings to change the tempo of the performance without showing it on the score.

The default tempo is ♩=120.

Time signature: we support time signature definition when they are in the beginning of any measure. We do not support time signature in the middle of a measure.

Language: we support Spanish, Catalan, English, Latin, and German. If you have a score with any other language we can synthesize it with 'aah' sounds (without lyrics).

Parts: If you name the staves with standard part names (e.g. 'Soprano' / 'Sop' / 'Sopranos'), we will automatically detect the voice type for each part. If you have a part with a non-standard name (e.g. 'Soloist'), you'll be able to manually select the voice type when uploading the score to Cantamus. Also don’t use spaces, or special characters in the part names like ‘/’, ‘@’, ‘*’ because they might be problematic.

Divisi: The score can include divisi in the vocal parts but with some restrictions. When you upload a piece containing divisi a warning will appear to follow some rules in order to be correctly recognised by the Cantamus parser and avoid synchronization issues:

• Up to 2 voices on a single staff are supported. Scores with a part containing a 3 notes divisi/chord might have problems.

• There are several ways to write divisi, with chord notation or with voice1/voice2 notation. It is recommended to use the voice1/voice2 notation but always making sure that for every measure containing divisi, the measure is filled completely for all voices. As an example, the following measure contains a divisi followed by a silence only present for voice1:

  

  This might be problematic in some cases and might end up in a desynchronization between voices after this measure, this can be solved by inserting the same silence (green one) also for the voice2, like in the example below:

  

  For the measures that do not contain divisi it is ok to have them all written as voice1. Also make sure there are no measures with inconsistent voice1/voice2 notes like not having divisi but having some notes encoded as voice1 and others with voice2.

• If after following all above rules you are still having problems you can always try rewriting the divisi into 2 different staves/parts.

Maximum score duration: The maximum length for a single score is 60 "voice minutes". Voice minutes are calculated as the piece duration multiplied by the number of voices. This limit is in place to prevent abuse of our system.

Lyrics:

• Every note should have lyrics (unless the lyrics are extended from the previous note). Notes without lyrics will be synthesized with 'ah' sound. The lyrics must be included in all the staves.

• Melismas: if a syllable extends from one note to the next note, this should be marked with an underline in the score. Example:

  

• Syllables that form a word must be connected with a dash (-). Example:

  

  If there are melismas inside a word, still use a dash, like here in the 'ti' syllable:

  

• Every note should have only one syllable. In rare case where there are multiple words per note, they should be separated using an "elision" character. The elision character can be underscore (_), space, or undertie (‿). Example:

  

  See instructions how to make elision in MuseScore. In Sibelius it's done using underscore (_).

• Lyrics with multiple verses are NOT supported. Example:

  

  Please unroll each verse explicitly in the score.

Phonetic symbols to adjust lyrics pronunciation (optional)

• Optionally you can use phonetic symbols to adjust pronunciation in the score lyrics, using the following syntax in the lyrics field in the MusicXML score:
  • In each note, instead of writing the orthographic words and syllables of the lyrics, you can write the lyrics followed by a sequence of phonetic symbols inside [ ] marks, “text [ph1.ph2.ph3]”, where text would the the orthographic lyrics, and ph1, ph2 and ph3 the sequence of phonetic symbols (3 in this example).
  • This allows to distinguish the pronunciation of words such as "lead" by specifying "lead [l.eh.d]”
• Phonetic symbols are a custom adaptation of Arpabet symbols for English (using lowercase, see table below) and other schemas for German, Spanish and Catalan languages.
• Phonetic symbols will not be shown on the Cantamus score visualization, only the regular orthographic text.
• Table of phonetic symbols for English (click on the arrow to display it):
• Table of phonetic symbols for multiple languages (English, German, Spanish, Catalan and Latin)

Score parsing problems

• Some scores might fail when uploaded in the Add Piece section giving a “Something went wrong” message. In those cases it is difficult to guess what is the problem with the score, many times the problem is related with complex notation that our app is unable to parse, we are constantly improving it so it might fail now but work in the near future, you can send us the problematic score so we can take a look at the problem and improve the parser.

• We identified that some scores contain tuplets (quintuplets, sextuplets, septuplets) that we are unable to parse correctly and give an error, please try to avoid these whenever you can to be able to upload the score correctly until this issue is solved in Cantamus. E.g: