Adding the finishing touches.
From the array of typefaces at your disposal, a number of styles are possible and by mixing these, any number of unique designs are under your control... you get to consider questions of appearance and presentation. This particular mixture of fonts and settings is referred to as the house style.
Choosing the fonts for your work we build the house style that gives your work its defining character.
Music samples
In this section we illustrate musical works in some of the more popular formats using a variety of fonts and house styles to achieve the distinctive look and feel of the composition.
Etudes d'exécution transcendante; I. Preludio – Franz Liszt (S.139)
Music font: Opus; size, 19 pts. Print 9" x 12". Expression and technical text; Times New Roman, 10.4 mm. Title, subtitle, headers and footers etc: HelveticaNeueLT Std. Title size, 21 mm.
Notes: right bound for 2 page spread.
downloadSonata sopr'il Sogetto Reale; I. Largo - J. S. Bach (BWV 1079.8)
Music font: Helsinki; size, 14 pts. Print 9" x 12". Tempo text; Times New Roman, 12 mm. Title, subtitle, headers and footers etc: Garamond. Title size, 22 mm.
Notes: Oboe transcribed from violin / Guitar arranged from basso continuo and set with transposing clef.
Fourth String Quartet; I. Allegro molto, energico – Arnold Schoenberg (Opus 37)
Music font: Jazz; size: 16 pts. Print 8.5" x 11" (Letter). Expression and technical text; Inkpen 2, 8.8 mm. Title, subtitle headers and footers etc: Segoe Print, Segoe UI Symbol. Title size, 17.6 mm.
Notes: Added new symbols for Schoenberg's custom articulations.
THE PLANETS; I. Mars, the Bringer of War. - Gustav Holst (Opus 32)
Music font: Maestro; size, 11 pts. Print A3. Expression and technical text; Times New Roman, 6.8 mm. Title, subtitle: Times New Roman. Title (i), 30 mm; title (ii), 25 mm.
Notes: large format orchestral score with "classic" font styles. Offset gutter included for binding.
Violin I - THE PLANETS; I. Mars, the Bringer of War. - Gustav Holst (Opus 32)
Music font: Maestro; size, 19 pts. Print 9" x 12". Expression and technical text: Times New Roman, 10 mm. Title, subtitle headers and footers: Times New Roman. Title size: 20.9 mm.
Notes: part extracted with matching fonts and style, centred for stitched binding.
Aus: „Dem Schmerz sein Recht“ von Friedrich Hebbel – Alban Berg (Opus 2, No.1)
Music font: Inkpen 2, size: 19 pts. Print A4. Expression, technical text and lyrics: Tekton Pro, 10.9 mm. Title text: Reprise Title, 24 mm. Tempo text: Comic Sans MS. Headers and footers: Reprise Script.
Notes: A complex setting which preserves the original syllabic notation.
Mass in B-flat major; Dona Nobis Pacem - Joseph Haydn (Hob.XXII:10)
Music font: Petrucci; size, 14 pts. Print 9" x 12". Expression and technical text: Times New Roman, 10 mm. Title, subtitle headers and footers etc: Garamond. Title size: 22 mm.
Notes: a modernised re-engraving of an ancient score with incipits.
Music font samples
Believe it or not, the musical notes, their stems, flags, beams, accents and all the other musical characters we find on a page of music are just another kind of font. All the fonts are available whether we work in Finale or Sibelius.
The major typefaces included here represent some of the best in widespread use today and taken together they embody the modern, old and script styles of notation.
The default modern font of the Sibelius music notation platform.
• This font has a rich character set which makes it generally suitable for all types of notation.
• A good all-rounder, it produces highly readable characters with modest decorative qualities.
• Suitable for all types of music from the ancient to the modern.
The default modern font of the Finale music notation plaftorm.
• Contains an exhaustive character set with advanced typographic features in Finale.
• One of the most widely used music fonts in the industry at this time.
• Highly readable with excellent characteristics, Maestro features a light, calligraphic style.
Named after Ottaviano Petrucci a 16C Italian printer - reputedly the first to print music using movable type.
• An old style font with slightly more condensed characters than Maestro, its contemporary equivalent.
• Slightly fewer calligraphic touches than Maestro but a clean and elegant font nonetheless.
• Particularly suitable for compositions with a high page density, and older works.
An old style font released with Sibelius 4 embodying "a traditional design with a plate-engraved appearance" created as "an elegant alternative to Opus".
• Extensive character set coupled with rounder noteheads on a par with Petrucci.
• Medium contrast between light and heavy strokes allowing for greater density on the page.
A popular script font bundled with Finale, with the look and feel of handwritten notation.
• A perfect font bringing the look of a spontaneously drafted piece to life.
• Great for lead sheets.
• A broad character set with a lightly scripted style particularly suitable for casual use.
A slightly heavier script font bundled with Sibelius, emulating a broad nibbed inkpen style.
• Elegant handwritten style with impressive design features.
• Good for creating the impression of hand-copied music sheets c.1950's
• Good character set suitable for all casual use.
Ordinary fonts
The ordinary fonts sampler illustrates just ten families of font from the thousands available and these are broken down into three basic classes: the Old Style and serif fonts which are frequently used for body text, sans serif fonts used frequently for titles and other headline text, and the script texts used for mainly decorative effect. Of these, Times New Roman is traditionally used for expressive text thanks to its minimal contrast between light and heavy strokes and extensive character set, though almost any serif font can be used for this purpose. Almost any font looks good for titles, headers, footers and so on, though it is best not to use too many in order to preserve the overall balanced look of the document.