Release notes for Mozart 15

Mozart 15 version 15.0.8.0

22 September 2021

• Thanks to Tony Caporn for reporting a problem with Mozart failing to open a file. It turned out that Mozart was not happy with a symbol it didn't recognise. Irrespective of how that got there, Mozart is now more tolerant of this situation.
• Thanks to Chris Beeson for pointing out that adding a 2nd time bar bracket to a final bar restyles it to a single bar. This is now fixed.
• Thanks to Richard Mills for pointing out that making an end-of-2nd-time-bar into a start-of-repeat didn't always work, depending on the method used. This is now fixed.
• Thanks also to Richard for finding that one couldn't directly add a second time bar ending on a start of repeat. This too is now fixed.
• Thanks again to Richard for helping to pinpoint one cause of a bug which left duplicate font syles in the piece. This occurred when adding text boxes attached to system spacers, and is now fixed.
• Thanks to Jeroen Neve for pointing out that, in the Grace Note Properties dialogue box, the option to play on or before the beat should not be disabled for a single acciaccatura. This is now corrected.
• Thanks to Hugo Hölscher for finding that the option of starting with a rehearsal mark other than 'A' didn't work. It does now.

Mozart 15 version 15.0.7.0

15 July 2021

• Thanks to Richard Mills for finding that stem lengths were not always treated correctly when a note was replaced by a rest. This is now fixed.
• Thanks also to Richard for finding that the layout editor was replacing some stave dimensions in the dialogue by random numbers. (But fortunately the drawing code was using the correct values!) This is now fixed too.
• Thanks to Leward Fluty for finding that resetting an instrument to one with a different transposition, transposed the part correctly but did not reformat any phrase marks. This also is now fixed.
• Thanks to Bob Hannum for finding that combining staves causes clefs in other parts to revert to default clefs for their instruments. This now no longer happens.

Mozart 15 version 15.0.6.0

8 May 2021

• Thanks to Carl Egetter for finding an infelicity in the dialogue page which lets you select a MIDI voice. This is now fixed.
• Thanks to Andy Jerison for pointing out a couple of rough edges in the Global Settings dialogue page. These have now been sanded down.
• Thanks also to Andy for proving that an orphaned end-of-2nd-time-bar was just about impossible to remove. It is now a little easier.
• And in the process, thanks again to Andy for helping to find ways to copy passages so that they contain orphaned bar-bracket-ends. Hopefully this is now impossible; it's definitely much harder!
• Thanks to Paul Kajzar or finding examples of Mozart 8 files which Mozart 15 couldn't read. Mozart 9-14 could, and the problem turned out to be an infelicity which had crept into the obscure old-file-reading module of Mozart 15. It is now fixed.
• Thanks also to Paul for finding that ornaments were not being correctly exported to MusicXML. In his case a mordent, but it turned out that others were just as bad or worse. This is now fixed.
• Thanks to Richard Mills for exposing a problem with tempo offsets when a file is saved and reopened. This now fixed.
• Thanks to Ray Kohn for reporting a problem with MusicXML not appearing on his Export menu. This is almost certainly due to the MusicXML module not loading correctly on his computer, but it is not clear why that should be. Nevertheless, this service pack contains an updated build of the MusicXML module, in the hope that that will fix it.
• Thanks to Jeroen Neve for finding that using the split command on the first or last note of a tuplet, leads to disaster. This is now fixed.

Mozart 15 version 15.0.5.0

28 March 2021

• Thanks to Leward Fluty for finding that adding an extra stave to a score caused reformatting including setting all stems unnecessarily to their default direction. Mozart is now a little more discerning about what it reformats after the score has been edited.
• Thanks to Jeroen Neve for noticing that offsetting a note can sometimes cause the caret to become corrupted. This is now fixed.
• Thanks for assorted reports of problems with macros. It looks like this was a bug introduced in a recent service pack, with miscellaneous effects. I think it is fixed now!
• Thanks to Clive Longhurst for showing that a hairpin encompassing a single note, and ending on a bar line caused the note not to play back. This is now fixed.
• Thanks to Bob Hehmann for reporting problems with the Layout/BarsPerLine command. After inverstigation, it was difficult to see how it could aver have worked properly on pieces with more than one strand! It is now fixed.
• Thanks to Graham Main for finding, and illustrating, a sequence of operations leading to an illegal delete command. This is now fixed.
• Thanks to Andy Jerison for pointing out that the action of the Ctrl key in accelerating the spin button on the ItemOffset dialogue box is 'obscure'. In fact it seems to be completely undocumented! There is now a reminder on the dialogue box itself, and the relevant help topic is completely updated.
• Thanks also to Andy for finding a circumstance in which he couldn't remove a courtesy accidental. This is now fixed.
• Thanks again to Andy for noticing that splitting and combning staves was losing the strand names. This is now corrected.
• And thanks yet again to Andy for finding a small problem with short 8va bracket near the end of a line. This is now fixed too.
• New Functionality: Thanks to Michael Robertson for requesting dulcimer tablature. This is introduced for chromatic dulcimers in this service pack.

Mozart 15 version 15.0.4.0

10 February 2021

• Thanks to Andy Jerison and Leward Fluty for highlighting a problem with the Enter key on the 'strands' page of the 'score layout' dialogue. This is now fixed. The source of the problem was deep within a 3rd party module used by Mozart to draw buttons showing both an image and text. This module has now been replaced with in-house code in order to forestall similar possible problems with other buttons.
• Thanks to Richard Mills for finding that the bar number misplacement had not been entirely fixed -it was still wrong when a time signature change occured at a line change. There was an associated mis-drawing of a start of repeat bar at that [point too. This is now all fixed.
• Thanks also to Richard for pointing out that when Mozart assigne 'instrument IDs' for the purpose of exporting XML, the values assigned are not always technically legal. This is now fixed.
• And thanks yet again to Richard for finding that Mozart's MusicXML export was not always setting MIDI channels and voices cotrectly. This is now fixed too.
• The default spacing after a time signature change at a start of repeat at a linechange has been improved.
• Thanks to Claude Tallet for observing that hyphens between lyric syllables were absent at the end of a score line. This is now fixed. In the process, the centring of syllables on the notes to which they are attached has also been improved.
• Thanks to Barry Brookes for finding that it is difficult to get an 8va symbol with a very short attached bracket. This is now improved, and the improvement extended to number brackets and hairpins.
• Thanks to Roger Prowse for finding anomalies in the block selectio after bars have been removed. This is now fixed.
• New Functionality: Alt+Shift+LeftArrow, Alt+Shift+RightArrow applied when the highlight is at one end of an extended item (8va bracket, number bracket, hairpin) offsets both ends of the object in parallel.

Mozart 15 version 15.0.3

13 January 2021

• With thanks to Richard Mills: Horizontal offset of bar numbers at the left of the stave, where there is a key or time change. This also fixes misplacement of rehearsal marks and text items at the start of a stave where there is a key or time change.
• With thanks to Bengt Johnsson: Muting notes now also silences accented notes.
• With thanks to Barry Brookes: Mozart was sometimes crashing when importing MusicXML files containing lyrics. This now fixed.
• With thanks to Jeroen Neve: the 'hidden attribute' of extended items (hirpins, brackets, ...) was not always being respected. This is now fixed.

Mozart 15 version 15.0.2

20 December 2020

• In 15.0.0 and 15.0.1 the 'updates' button on the Help tab will tell you when an update is available, but will not download it. You have to go to https://www.mozart.co.uk/support/ to get it. This is fixed here so that in future the updates button should work fully.

Mozart 15 version 15.0.1

19 December 2020

• Thanks to Tony Caporn for reporting a problem with bar-number visibility. It turns out that the bar number was not being shown above the score system when the top staff is a conductor part. This is now fixed.
• Thanks to John Filsak for finding a badly offset arpeggiation symbol. This is now fixed.
• Thanks to Jeroen Neve for finding that one way of deleting an arpeggiation symbol caused a crash. This is now fixed.
• Thanks also to Jeroen for finding that when copying and pasting a single text item, the wrong text was pasted. This is now fixed. While delving into this we also found problems with text containing an exclamation mark (!). For subtle technical reasons this was not being pasted correctly. This too is now fixed.
• Thanks to Hugo Hölscher for reporting that rehearsal mark sequence was not being updated when a new one was entered via the bar-line properties dialogue box. This is now fixed.
• Thanks to Richard Mills for highlighting problems with editing the duration of an existing caesura. As far as I can tell this was only a problem if the caesura was attached to a bar-line (and not to a note or rest). This is now fixed.
• Thanks also to Richard for showing that start-of-line bar numbers were printed to low down on piano staves. This is also now fixed.
• Thanks to Gunnar Nordstrom for finding that replacing a whole-bar-repeat symbol by the actual contents of the previous bar did not work correctly if the previous bar contained slash notes. This is now fixed.
• An error has become apparent which means that the synthesiser will not have been getting an "all notes off" message at the end of play-back. This doesn't seem to have had any ill effect, but it's fixed now anyway!
• Thanks to Barry Brooks for highlighting the fact that the "Insert start tempo" check box on the new file dialogue didn't work when the 'template' option was used. This is now fixed.

MOZART 15

November 2020

No infelicities found yet, but here's a list of new features

Symbols

• ‘Slash’ note-heads are now available (in two slightly different styles).
• Note heads may now be put in parentheses (in addition to the existing option of putting courtesy accidentals in parentheses).
• The laisser vibrer symbol (a ‘tie to nowhere’) is available.
• An optional continuation symbol is introduced for system breaks occurring in the middle of a bar.
• Optional continuation symbols have been introduced for where the number of staves shown on a system differs from the previous system.
• There is a greater degree of support for Accordion music, including a choice of 32 register (coupler) symbols.
• Note stems may be hidden (for specialist purposes).
• A greater selection of styles is available for 8va and other brackets over/under the music.

Rendering

• Bar numbers may be placed above or below and by the bar-line or centred on the bar.
• The position of individual bar numbers may be fine-tuned to avoid collisions.
• The position of ‘redirections’ (DS, DC, Fine, Coda,…) may be fine-tuned to avoid collisions.
• Rendering of multiple bars rest is improved.
• The background colour (‘paper colour’) for the representation of the music on the screen is now user-definable.
• The caesura (break //) now plays back (with adjustable duration).
• Pieces may now be marked with one of the modes: Major, Minor, Dorian Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Ionian, Aeolian, or Locrian (or left unmarked as before).

Interface improvements

• A new, quicker mechanism, is introduced for entering triplets and other tuplets when typing in music.
• An item (such as text or dynamics), having been entered in one part, may now be copied to all parallel parts, or to a selection of parallel parts, with a single command.
• Individual items (such as text and dynamics) may now be copied and pasted.
• Delete commands specific to items including dynamics and sforzandi have been introduced. These allow one to select a block and remove, for example, all dynamics from it, leaving other items unaffected.
• Automatic beaming of groups of notes (including breaking inner beams) has improved.
• On starting a new piece (by any of the three available methods) you can choose the ‘classic’ or ‘jazz’ music font.
• The procedure for extracting musicians’ parts from a score has been refined and improved.
• All musicians parts may be extracted with a single command.
• Text font styles are now separated into two sets: one for text in the music (expressions, directions,…) and one for on the page (title, headers, footers,..). These scale with the music and the page size respectively.
• Text font styles for the music now include standard (but user-definable) styles for expression markings, instructions, and tempi (as discussed by Elaine Gould in ‘Behind bars’).
• Many operations which previously required one to show the virtual conductor stave, may now be effected transparently, without actually showing it.
• When hidden staves are shown for editing, the screen page image expands to allow this to be done smoothly.
• Export of abc files is improved.
• Mozart now has ‘page layout files (.mzlayout) in addition to score template files (.mzt). Score templates continue to be available for creating a new piece, and contain both score structure and page layout information. Page layout files contain only page layout information, and are used, for example, when extracting parts from a score. A page layout may also be imposed from a .mzlayout file on to an existing piece.
• A page layout may also be imposed from a .mzlayout file on to an existing piece.
• The overview of text boxes has improved.
• There is a new ‘Help’ category tab replacing the drop-down list of help-related topics.
• The mouse-wheel action when the Ctrl key is pressed has been adjusted to conform to its behaviour in Microsoft’s applications.
• A new tablature command is available to move a note from one string to another, automatically adjusting the fret in order to preserve the pitch.