Extending music21 with Additional Software¶
Installing Additional Software Components¶
Additional functionality of music21 is available with the
installation of numerous helper applications. While not essential
for all applications, these tools will aid in working with music21.
MuseScore¶
MuseScore offers a free, full-featured, cross-platform (Windows, Mac OS, Ubuntu,
Debian, and Fedora) application for viewing and editing music notation.
MuseScore can import and export MusicXML, and provides an excellent way to view,
edit, and export musical data for working in music21.
Downloading MuseScore (version 2 or higher)
is highly recommended for working with music21.
Lilypond¶
Lilypond is a free, open-source music display program that can produce
beautiful scores. Music21 can generate PDF or PNG (like JPG) files
automatically if Lilypond is installed on your system. Download it at:
Installing Additional Python Modules¶
Music21 can do more things, such as plotting graphs, if you
install additional Python libraries.
The following topics cover additional software used by music21.
For each library, visit the websites listed below, download the
additional python libraries, and install them just as you did with
music21 (with uv add, in your m21play folder, or whatever you named it).
If you don’t feel like installing them now, no worries: you can always install them later.
It’s best not to install these until you have music21 working without
additional modules.
Note: as of music21 v.6, some of these additional modules are bundled
with music21.
Matplotlib¶
(included with music21 by default)
Graphing and visual displays in Music21 are provided by Matplotlib. Matplotlib itself has additional dependencies (such as NumPy).
In your m21play folder, run:
uv add matplotlib
and you should be set.
numpy¶
(included with music21 by default)
Numeric extensions to Python. Included with Matplotlib.
In your m21play folder, run:
uv add numpy
and you should be set.
scipy¶
Scientific extensions to Python. These are used to accelerate
audio searching and fast-Fourier transforms in music21.
If you will only be using symbolic music, it is not used, and
not essential in any case.
In your m21play folder, run:
uv add scipy
and you should be set.
pyaudio¶
Allows for recording within python. We use it for the audioSearch module, and nowhere else.
Not essential. Requires portaudio and, on the Mac, the XCode command-line development tools.
On the Mac, run:
xcode-select --install
brew install portaudio
uv add pyaudio
pygame¶
Allows for realtime MIDI performance. We use it in the midi.realtime module, and nowhere else. It is therefore not essential.
In your m21play folder, run:
uv add pygame
Pygame 1.9 or later is required for correct error handling