Mosaic (also called Composer's Mosaic[1]) was a Macintosh scorewriter application for producing music notation, developed by Mark of the Unicorn.

First released as Professional Composer among early Macintosh software in 1984, the application introduced a user interface similar to the word processor.[2] The main features included entering musical notation, printing sheet music, and support for lyrics under the score with the font of choice. Notes could be selected from the user interface or entered from the keyboard. The user could also change or extend the tempo, key signature, meter, and other parameters.[3]

The next major release, Professional Composer 2.0, supported writing on up to 40 staves and allowed the user to enter notes as short as 128th notes, with all operations mainly controlled by menus and dialog boxes. Version 2.0 also introduced several improvements for printing (such as automatically condensing parts with several rest measures), allowing production of professional quality scores. Although the application demanded knowledge of music theory to use its rich features, it offered only rudimentary playback capabilities. A Macworld review also criticized the high price (US$495 in February 1986) and the lack of automatic scrolling when staves were filled (only via scroll bars).[4]

Version 2.2 (1988) corrected several bugs and improved compatibility with Mac Plus, SE and II.[5] Version 2.3M was the last release of Professional Composer.[6]

Mosaic entered the market in 1992 as the successor to Professional Composer.[7] An early user review of version 1.01 criticized stability issues and problems with file importing from other applications.[8] In version 1.58 released in 1998, the notation software removed all limits on page size, score length, number of staves, and number of voices per staff. Configuration options in different windows created a flexible but sometimes confusing user interface.[9] Drag and drop features and ability to convert MIDI files into usable notation were counted among the strongest points of Mosaic.[10]

After 1998, no new versions of Mosaic were released by MOTU, and therefore was not compatible with MacOS 10. Competing notation packages are Sibelius, Finale, and Dorico, however no direct conversion of file formats, such as via MusicXML, is possible.[11] Mosaic users now have to rely on creating PDF files of Mosaic output under MacOS 9 and then having these read by OCR programs such as PDFtoMusic[12] and PhotoScore[13] by Neuratron.

References

  1. ^ Wilkinson, Scott R. (1997). Anatomy of a Home Studio: How Everything Really Works, from Microphones to MIDI. Hal Leonard Corporation. p. 112. ISBN 9780918371218.
  2. ^ McGeever, Christine (June 4, 1984). "New Programs, Macintosh carries a tune". InfoWorld. Vol. 6, no. 23. CW Communications. p. 44. ISSN 0199-6649.
  3. ^ Clapp, Doug; Ryall, Pat (1985). "12 Sound & Animation Software". The Complete Macintosh Sourcebook. Santa Monica, CA: InfoBooks. pp. 135-136. ISBN 0-931137-03-9.
  4. ^ Swigart, Bob (February 1986). "They´re Playing Our Song". Macworld. Vol. 3, no. 2. PC World Communications. pp. 109–112. ISSN 0741-8647.
  5. ^ "Updates, Professional Composer". Macworld. Vol. 5, no. 8. PC World Communications. August 1988. p. 230. ISSN 0741-8647.
  6. ^ "MOTU's MOSIAC". Newsgroup: rec.music.synth. February 1992. Retrieved July 28, 2017.
  7. ^ Gruberman, Ken (October 1992). "Composer's Mosaic". MacUser. Vol. 8, no. 10. Ziff-Davis. p. 85. ISSN 0884-0997.
  8. ^ Ron Hemmel (March 8, 1992). "MOSAIC". Newsgroup: rec.music.synth. Usenet: Mar.8.15.31.22.1992.12994@finesse.rutgers.edu. Retrieved July 29, 2017.
  9. ^ Whitney, Ross (December 1998). "Composer's Mosaic". Notes. 55 (2): 436–438. doi:10.2307/900205. ISSN 0027-4380. JSTOR 900205.
  10. ^ Shirak, Rob (November 2000). "There's More to Creating Good Scores and Parts Than Just Putting Notes on Paper, Get It In Print, Mark of the Unicorn Mosaic (Mac)". Electronic Musician. Intertec Publishing. ISSN 0884-4720. Retrieved July 29, 2017.
  11. ^ (19 August 2008). Request by Sibelius users for a Mosaic to Sibelius conversion application. Sibelius (software)
  12. ^ PDFtoMusic. Myriad.
  13. ^ PhotoScore. Neuratron.

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