Version 2.0 for macOS
What is the Espressivo Application?
Espressivo is an application that enables users to interpret pieces of music according to their ideas. A human performer achieves musical expression mainly by controlling the following musical elements:
- Tempo
- Velocity
- Articulation
The control of the musical elements is applied to all or just to specific staffs or voices.
Prerequisites
In order to take full advantage of the Espressivo application you need additional input devices and software.
Input Devices
To interpret pieces of music you need a gamepad compatible with your computer. Among them you will find:
- Playstation 4 Dual Shock
- Playstation 5 Dual Sense
- Xbox Wireless
In contrast to the Xbox controller, Playstation controllers also include a motion sensor. For musical performances, we recommend a controller with a built-in motion sensor.
Since the latest version, a camera can also be used as an input device. The system software is able to recognize movements of the hands and the head which are further processed to control the musical performance.
Alternatively, an iPhone can be used as an input device, as it owns a motion sensor as well. For this purpose, an dedicated iOS app called MusicalConductor is available on the App Store.
If you do not have a gamepad at hand and your laptop has a trackpad, you might consider using a software-emulated controller. See menu Tools → Show Trackpad.
If you are a developer you might consider creating an app communicating over the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) or Bluetooth. See menu Help → Server to learn more on how to remotely control a musical performance.
Sound Output
This music app does not produce sound on its own. For this purpose you either use a MIDI player application, an Audio Unit extension, a Web Audio app, or connect an external MIDI device.
Use the Audio MIDI Setup tool to configure MIDI connections.
Sidebar
The left sidebar provides most of the essential functions of the application, as will be shown in the following.
Welcome
The Welcome panel provides basic information on how to start using this application. You will learn how to connect to a controller and a MIDI player. To begin, follow the steps suggested in the panel on the right side.
Repertoire
The Repertoire lets you choose the musical pieces you want to perform. The column in the middle shows the available score directories and the column on the right contains the available pieces of music. The left column is used to indicate the progress when loading a score file and it also presents any available information about the musical work in question.
After startup, the repertoire presents a set of scores included in the application. Choose a title from the list or open score files or a directory of score files from the file menu or the toolbar. Alternatively, you might drag and drop score files or a directory just onto the repertoire panel.
A context menu from the score file list lets you copy file paths, open score files, or show files in the Finder or the browser.
Note that the score files are always shown on two hierarchical levels, independently of how deep your files are nested.
Score
Navigate to the Score panel to see the graphical representation of the selected score. When the player is running, the notes playing at the moment are highlighted and the score scrolls accordingly to show the currently playing part. The available score files are presented on the right side similar to the Repertoire panel.
Conductor
The Conductor panel allows a simultaneous view of the score as well as the current values of the musical elements.
Gamepad
The gamepad panel defines the mapping of the controller’s buttons, analog sticks and sensors to the musical elements of the performance.
Since more than one controller can be attached at a time, the controllers are organized in tabs. Switch the tabs to find all attached controllers.
When no controller is connected, the application presents a virtual gamepad which is controlled by the trackpad of your laptop.
The available keys of the controllers are presented in a table. The first column of this table shows the symbol and the name of the respective key. Its current value is indicated by a horizontal bar. Right to the indicator, a popup menu presents the possible actions a key should perform. Finally, a menu lets you choose the staffs and voices an action is applied to.
With controller buttons you are able to perform the following actions:
- Start or stop playing
- Rewind the player
- Pedals on or off
- Proceed to the next title
- Switch to the previous title
- Change of the general tempo
- Change of the general velocity
- Choose a repeat mode
Analog sticks and sensors dynamically control the performance of these musical elements:
- Increase or decrease the tempo
- Increase or decrease the velocity, in general or per staff and voice
- Modify the articulation, in general, or per staff and voice
- Control the MIDI modwheel
For simplicity, start with one of the existing profiles such as Keyboard, Song or Buttons. Adapt the mappings for your purpose and save it as a profile for later use.
After having defined the mappings, the changes of the musical parameter values can be observed on the right side. To identify controllers and performers, consider assigning a symbol or emoji or a light color (the latter only applies to the Playstation controllers).
Camera
Instead of a gamepad, a camera can be used as a musical input device. The application is able to recognize and process movements of the head and the hands.
With movements of your head, you are able to perform the following actions:
- Start or stop playing
- Rewind the player
- Proceed to the next title
- Switch to the previous title
Movements of the hands can be used to control the following musical elements:
- Increase or decrease the tempo
- Increase or decrease the velocity, in general or per staff and voice
- Modify the articulation, in general, or per staff and voice
Instead of the built-in camera, an iPhone can be used as an external camera.
MIDI
The MIDI panel presents all detected MIDI destinations and devices. You are able to choose which destinations and devices will be used. Additionally, a selection of installed MIDI application is shown. They can be opened directly from within the Espressivo application.
Piano Roll
The piano roll is an alternative way of presenting a score. Color schemes are used to identify staffs and voices.
Please note that data imported from MIDI or TSV files can only be shown as piano rolls or note tables, but not as musical scores.
Note Table
The note table presents all audible notes of a piece of music, the rests and the measures in a temporal order. Note that the number of the notes is not necessarily identical to the number of notes shown in the score. For example, tied notes appear as a single note, ornaments do not create additional notes, but tremolo notes are expanded.
Notation
This panel provides an overview of the musical notation. Specifically, the following notations will be presented:
- Tempi
- Meters
- Keys
- Rehearsal markers
- Instructions
The notations are interactively linked to the score. It is also possible to temporarily modify the tempo and add new tempo markers.
Controller App
The Espressivo application supports Bluetooth connections to control musical elements. Press the Start button to run the Bluetooth Central. Once the Bluetooth device is connected you might stop searching for more devices.
Use the MusicalConductor app for iOS to establish a Bluetooth connection.
Server
The Espressivo application supports UDP connections. Start the server if you intend to remotely control the Espressivo application.
Log File
In the Log panel you will find entries for each opened score. You will also be informed about any warnings and errors which occurred during the parsing of the score files. Use the context menu to get additional information.
Settings
The settings of this program are mainly concerned with how the musical instructions are processed and how musical scores are graphically represented. The settings window is available from the Settings menu item.
Performance
Offers many musical settings such as the execution of ornaments and the repetition of sections.
Repertoire
Saves the addresses of previously visited repositories.
Trackpad
Settings concerning the use of the trackpad as a controller.
Browser
Choice of the preferred browser.
Piano Roll
Settings to control the appearance of the piano roll.
Performers
Settings to identify different performers.
Gamepad Controller
Defines the mapping between input elements and musical elements.
Camera Controller
Defines the mapping between gestures and musical elements.
Converters
Settings concerning the conversion of score data.
Score Options
Numerous setting to control the appearance of scores. Also exposes the complete Verovio options.
Good to Know
Additional information not mentioned elsewhere.
Shortcuts
A few shortcuts to simplify the operation of the program. Among those are:
- Space bar: Run and stop the performance
- Right arrow: Go to the next title
- Left arrow: Go to the previous title
Note that you may need to disable these shortcuts when entering text. There is a toolbar menu item to enable or disable these shortcuts.
Exporting Files
This application supports the following export formats:
- Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)
- Musical Encoding Initiative (MEI)
- Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI)
- Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG)
- Tab-Separated Values (TSV)
Listen
Would you like to listen to musical works created with this application? Go to menu item Listen to find numerous sound examples.