In a previous article, I pointed out the issue that music fonts such as Kousaku and Chaconne, which have been used in the Japanese domestically published scores along with Finale, cannot be used with Dorico. As for Chaconne, just as Finale users are starting to switch to Dorico, Chaconne EX, which has been reborn as an SMuFL version that can also be used with Dorico, was happily released on October 31, 2024.
In the first half of this article, I will compare Chaconne EX with Bravura and Finale Maestro, which are standard features of Dorico. In the second half of the article, I will compare the specifications of several major SMuFL fonts currently in use, including Chaconne EX.
[Table of Contents]
1. Appearance comparison of Bravura, Chaconne EX, and Finale Maestro
2. Comparison of the main SMuFL fonts currently in use
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1. Appearance comparison of Bravura, Chaconne EX, and Finale Maestro
(1) Overall impression comparison
Let's get started by looking at Bravura, which comes standard with Dorico. This music font is characterized by its thick look, and the staff line width is 1/8 space in Dorico's default settings, which makes it thicker accordingly.
As a result, it has a thicker overall impression compared to Kousaku and Finale Maestro, which have been used with Finale, and I guess that it gives many Finale users a slightly unusual impression.
Chaconne EX, like Kousaku and Finale Maestro, has many glyphs with slender designs, so the line width of the staff is also set to 9/100 space (= 0.72/8 space), about 72% of the default Bravura width, giving an overall sharp impression.
Finale Maestro, which has long been the default music font for the English version of Finale, was first installed in Finale v27 released in 2021 as an SMuFL version of Maestro, and was later ported to Dorico. It is basically composed of slender symbols similar to Chaconne EX, and the default line width of the staff is 9/100 space, just like Chaconne EX.
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(2) Details comparison
When zoomed in, you can see that the corners of each glyph in Bravura are rounded. The characteristic warm impression of Bravura may be influenced by the thickness as well as the treatment of these corners.
The difference between Bravura and the other two is obvious even from a distance, but Chaconne EX has many more slender glyphs than Finale Maestro, and the clefs are slightly smaller.
You can see the nuances of notes, accidentals, slurs, crescendos, etc. here.
Music fonts are basically the same in quality, so you should choose one based on your preference. Bravura has a familiar feel that reminds you of old-fashioned published scores, and Chaconne EX and Finale Maestro, both of which have modern designs, are a good match.
However, when you look at the size of the clefs, the balance of the size between the noteheads and the spherical parts of the eighth/sixteenth rests, and the density balance of the black parts between the noteheads and accidentals, Chaconne EX seems to emphasize the information that the performer needs most.
From that slant, I personally feel that Chaconne EX is the easiest to read of the three music fonts, and was superior in both beauty and practicality.
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2. Comparison of the main SMuFL fonts currently in use
(1) Specification comparison
The Font Book app that comes standard with macOS allows you to find out the attribute information of each music font, such as the number of glyphs included.
In the table below, SMuFL fonts, including Bravura, Chaconne EX, and Finale Maestro, are listed in order of the number of glyphs with their attributes.
Order | Music Font Name | Number of Glyphs | Style | Manufacturer | Designer | License | Copyright Information |
1 | Bravura | 3,693 | Engraved Style | Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH | Daniel Spreadbury et al. | SIL Open Font License | 2023 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH |
2 | Finale Maestro | 2,745 | Engraved Style | MakeMusic, Inc. | No info. | No info. | 2021 MakeMusic, Inc. |
3 | Petaluma | 1,524 | Handwritten style | Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH | Anthony Hughes | No info. | No info. |
4 | Sebastian | 1,235 | Engraved Style | No info. | Florian Kretlow & Ben Byram-Wigfield | No info. | No info. |
5 | Chaconne Ex | 732 | Engraved Style | No info. | Takashi Hoshide | No info. | 2024 StoneSystem |
6 | Golden Age | 725 | Handwritten style | Ben Byram-Wigfield | Don Rice | No info. | No info. |
7 | Finale Jazz | 719 | Handwritten style | MakeMusic, Inc. | Richard Sigler | No info. | 2022 MakeMusic, Inc. |
8 | Leipzig | 661 | Engraved Style | No info. | Etienne Darbellay, Jean-Francois Marti, Laurent Pugin, Klaus Rettinghaus | SIL Open Font License | No info. |
9 | Finale Engraver | 539 | Engraved Style | MakeMusic, Inc. | No info. | No info. | 2021 MakeMusic, Inc. |
10 | Leland | 467 | Engraved Style | MuseScore | Martin Keary & Simon Smith | No info. | 2022 MuseScore BVBA |
11 | Finale Broadway | 432 | Handwritten style | MakeMusic, Inc. | Richard Sigler | No info. | 2021 MakeMusic, Inc. |
12 | Finale Legacy | 419 | Engraved Style | MakeMusic, Inc. | No info. | No info. | 2021 MakeMusic, Inc. |
13 | Finale Ash | 302 | Handwritten style | MakeMusic, Inc. | No info. | No info. | 2021 MakeMusic, Inc. |
14 ※ | Toccata | 255 | Engraved Style | No info. | No info. | No info. | 1995 Blake Hoghetts 1987-1993 Coda Music Technology |
15 ※ | Kousaku | 222 | Engraved Style | No info. | No info. | No info. | 2004 Yuki Sakamoto and Ars Nova, Inc. |
(※Note: Toccata (#14) and Kousaku (#15) are old non-SMuFL fonts in TrueType format, unlike the others, but are included for reference.)
Bravura has the largest number of glyphs, and I think this is natural considering that the font's designer, Mr. Daniel Spreadbury of Steinberg, serves as the chair of the Music Notation Community Group, the organization that manages SMuFL.
Among the huge number of glyphs, 3,693, there are many experimental ones that are not commonly used, but these may be one of the design standards for SMuFL fonts that are still being developed.
Finale Maestro, created by MakeMusic, which has also been involved in the development of SMuFL fonts, features nearly 3,000 glyphs with designs similar to those of Kousaku and Chaconne, making it a good choice if you want to easily use a music font in Dorico that is close to the style of Finale’s “Engraved Style”.
Chaconne EX is fifth among SMuFL fonts in terms of the number of glyphs, but considering that Kousaku had 222 glyphs and Chaconne before it was made SMuFL had 194 glyphs, it can be said that Chaconne EX has a sufficient number of glyphs for practical use.
As mentioned before, Chaconne EX combines beauty and practicality, and is characterized by the fact that it includes carefully selected glyphs that have been carefully created for the Japanese domestically published music.
What was a little surprising in this data to me was the small number of glyphs in Leland, which MuseScore provides, at 467. I don’t know the reason for this, but since MuseScore, like Finale and Dorico, is a music notation software that supports SMuFL and can use Bravura and Finale Maestro, I guess there may not be much need to put effort into developing their original music font.
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(2) Music font legacy left by Finale
Finally, the total number of glyphs in the SMuFL fonts developed by Steinberg and MakeMusic is shown in the table below. This shows that both companies have produced roughly the same number of glyphs, about 5,200 in total for each.
Steinberg | MakeMusic | |
Bravura (Engr.) | 3,693 | |
Finale Maestro (Engr.) | 2,745 | |
Petaluma | 1,524 | |
Finale Jazz | 719 | |
Finale Engraver (Engr.) | 539 | |
Finale Broadway | 432 | |
Finale Legacy (Engr.) | 419 | |
Finale Ash | 302 | |
Total Number of Glyphs | 5,217 | 5,156 |
* (Engr.) indicates engraved style music fonts, and the rest indicate handwritten style music fonts.
The Finale application itself, which has been discontinued, will probably reach the end of its life in about 5 to 6 years, considering OS upgrades and the useful life of the computers it runs on.
However, as long as the SMuFL specifications do not change significantly, I believe that these precious music font legacies left by Finale will continue to be usable in Dorico and MuseScore for a long time to the future, along with Bravura, the music font with the largest number of glyphs, and Chaconne EX, which has recently been added to the SMuFL font lineup.
Music fonts are the most important part of music notation software, as they are the final product of the software. As long as these music fonts exist, Finale will continue to live on in some other form.
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