Rastral rastral · the pen that ruled the staff

Your manuscript,
engraved.

Photograph a handwritten page. Receive editable notation.
οἴμας Μοῦσ’ ἐδίδαξε.
“The Muse has taught them the paths of song.” · Odyssey VIII
Marble seated harp player. Cycladic, 2800–2700 BCE
Plate I. — Seated harp player. Cycladic, 2800–2700 BCE. Marble.
§ II
The problem.
A page of music, written by hand, lives on paper. Setting it in type means hours at a keyboard, note by note. Or a copyist, at a copyist’s rate, page by page.
Marble statue of a seated muse. Roman, 1st or 2nd century CE
Plate III. — A seated Muse.
Roman, 1st–2nd century CE.
§ III
Specimen.
Greensleeves, eight bars of engraved notation
Fig. I. — Greensleeves, an air in 6/8. Transcribed by hand. As data — greensleeves-specimen.musicxml
before m. 1 — the air enters on an anacrusis: a single quaver, A.
m. 7 — accidentals written where they sound: G♯, F♯, G♯.
m. 8 — closes on A, tied; two quaver rests complete the record.
Marble sarcophagus with the contest between the Muses and the Sirens
Plate II. — The contest of the Muses and the Sirens. Marble sarcophagus, Roman, third century CE.
Rastral
rastral · the pen that ruled the staff
Plate I. — Seated harp player. Marble; Cycladic, 2800–2700 BCE. Rogers Fund, 1947. 47.100.1. Plate II. — The contest of the Μοῦσαι and the Σειρῆνες. Pentelic marble; Roman, third century CE. Rogers Fund, 1910. 10.104. Plate III. — A seated Μοῦσα. Pentelic marble; Roman, 1st–2nd century CE. Gift of Mrs. Frederick F. Thompson, 1903. 03.12.16. Plate IV. — A woman playing the κιθάρα. Terracotta; Cypriot, 2nd–1st century BCE. The Cesnola Collection. 74.51.1673. Reserved for the second printing.
Founding tester terms Plates: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Open Access (CC0). Set in Bodoni Moda, EB Garamond, Courier Prime & GFS Didot. Licensed OFL. Correspondence: hello@rastral.com · rastral.com · MMXXVI