Sibelius (computer program)

Infobox Software
name=Sibelius
logo=


caption=Sibelius 5.1, running under Microsoft Windows Vista
developer=Sibelius Software
released=1993
latest release version="5.2"
18 April 2008
operating system=Microsoft Windows, Mac OS, Mac OS X, RISC OS
license=Proprietary
website= [http://www.sibelius.com/ www.sibelius.com]
use=Scorewriter

"Sibelius" is a scorewriter program, created by Sibelius Software, used in the music industry by composers, arrangers and music publishers to create scores and parts for musical compositions and arrangements. It is one of the most popular programs of this type. [Matthew Nicholl & Richard Grudzinski, "Music Notation: Preparing Scores and Parts", ed. Jonathan Feist. Boston: Berklee Press (2007): 5] Sibelius claims "hundreds of thousands of users in 100 countries" [ [http://www.sibelius.com/documents/index.html Sibelius corporate information ] ]

Origin

"Sibelius" was originally developed by British twins Ben and Jonathan Finn for the Acorn Archimedes and Risc PC computers, and was one of the best-known products for those computers. Development was started in 1987, just after the Finns left school, and the program was released in 1993.

In 1998 and 1999, the first versions for Windows and Macintosh were released. [cite web|url=http://www.sibelius.com/documents/index.html|title=Sibelius Corporate Information|publisher=Sibelius Software|accessdate=2007-05-21] The current "Sibelius", version 5, was launched on 8 June 2007.

The main competitor to Sibelius is "Finale".

The first ever user of Sibelius was the composer and copyist Richard Emsley, who provided advice on music engraving aspects of the software and used it before it was first released to the public. The first score published using Sibelius was "Antara" by George Benjamin, published by Faber Music and copied by Emsley.

Features

"Sibelius" includes features that allows scores to be played back or burned to an audio CD. The third-party program "Photoscore" can be used to scan and create a "Sibelius" score from printed music; a lite version of Photoscore is bundled with the "Sibelius" software. [cite web|url=http://www.sibelius.com/products/sibelius/index.html|title=Sibelius Product Information|publisher=Sibelius Software|accessdate=2007-05-21] Sibelius "Scorch", a web browser plugin enables users to publish scores created in Sibelius on the Internet. It is used by SibeliusMusic.com (see below), various music publishers' web sites, and web sites of individual musicians.

The "Sibelius" bundle includes Native Instruments' "Kontakt Player 2" and a range of sounds called Sibelius Sounds Essentials. Sibelius 5 allows for VST and Audio Unit plug-ins to be used as playback instruments, giving Sibelius users access to high-end sample libraries (such as Vienna Symphonic Library or MOTU's Symphonic Instrument). [cite web|publisher=Sibelius Software|title=VST play back in Sibelius 5|url=http://www.sibelius.com/products/sibelius/5/vst.html|accessdate=2007-06-09]

The current version of the program plays a brief passage from a recording of Jean Sibelius's 3rd Symphony as it starts, unless this option is switched off in the program's preferences. So far, each Windows/Macintosh "Sibelius" version has used a different excerpt from a Sibelius symphony.

Lite versions

Lite versions of "Sibelius" have been released for Acorn computers ("Sibelius 7 Student", "Sibelius 6" and "Junior Sibelius") and more recently for Windows and Macintosh platforms ("Sibelius Student and Sibelius First"). A "Sibelius" version for guitarists and songwriters called "G7" is also available, though it has not been updated for several years.

Name

The name "Sibelius" for both software and company is a namesake of the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. Some users have also speculated that it was taken from developers' surname 'Finn', as Sibelius was a Finn (i.e. Finnish). Nonetheless, the Finn brothers maintain that they cannot really remember the reason.

The original Acorn version of the software was called "Sibelius 7", but the "7" was not a version number. It may have been an allusion to Sibelius's 7th Symphony, a short excerpt of which is played upon opening the program. For the Windows and Macintosh versions the company dropped the "7" and began using conventional version numbers instead. It is not clear what will happen to the name if and when the software's version number reaches 7.

Users

Sibelius is used by professionals and amateurs for composing, arranging and writing out music, in addition to being widely used as an educational tool. In the professional world, it is used by composers Alf Clausen, Steve Reich, Michael Tilson-Thomas, Jamie Cullum, Howard Goodall, Harry Gregson-Williams, Lalo Schifrin, and others. It is also used at music schools such as the Royal Academy of Music, Trinity College of Music, the Juilliard School of Music, Chetham's School Of Music, Mannes College, and the Berklee College of Music, and thousands of high schools in the UK, USA and other countries.

ibelius Music.com

SibeliusMusic.com is a web site where composers can upload scores they have created with Sibelius, so that anyone can view, play back, buy, and print the music using Sibelius Scorch. Some scores are sold, others are free. If a composer decides to sell music, Sibelius will take a commission off each sale. SibeliusMusic began in 2001, and by July 2008 had approximately 80,000 scores – more than any other web site. It is also one of the most popular sites that use the Scorch plug-in. SibeliusMusic has a similar concept to any social music uploading sites, such as MySpace Music.

ee also

*Scorewriter
*Sibelius Software

References

External links

* [http://www.sibelius.com/products/scorch/ Scorch] , a Web browser plugin for reading digital sheet music
* [http://www.howardgoodall.com/tvthemes/QITheme.htm QI Theme by Howard Goodall] , an example of music created with Sibelius, played in scorch
* [http://www.sibelius.com/ Sibelius Software Ltd]
* [http://www.sibeliusmusic.com/ SibeliusMusic] , Sibelius Software's own online music publishing website