Editing Capella (notation program)

{{Short description|Scorewriter}}
{{Other uses|Capella (disambiguation)}}
{{multiple issues|
{{overly detailed|date=September 2018}}
{{more citations needed|date=September 2018}}
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{{Infobox software
| name                   = Capella
| title                  = 
| logo                   = Capella-logo.png
| logo caption           = 
| screenshot             = <!-- [[File: ]] -->
| caption                = 
| collapsible            = 
| author                 = {{ill|Hartmut Ring|de|vertical-align=sup}}
| developer              = capella-software AG
| released               = {{Start date and age|1992|p=yes}}
| discontinued           = 
| latest release version = 10.0-04
| latest release date    = {{Start date and age|df=yes|2025|04|30}}<ref>{{cite web|title=Versionshistorie capella|url=https://www.capella-software.com/de/index.cfm/download/capella/versionshistorie/|accessdate=6 May 2025}}</ref>
| latest preview version = 
| latest preview date    = <!-- {{Start date and age|YYYY|MM|DD|df=yes/no}} -->
| programming language   = 
| operating system       = [[Windows 7]] and later, [[macOS]] (up to capella 7, [[Microsoft Windows]])
| platform               = [[Qt (software)|Qt]] (from version 8 on)
| language               = Czech, Dutch,<ref name="NL">{{cite web|title=Capella 7 - an exploration|url=http://www.psalmboek.nl/capella-muzieksoftware-review.php|website=Psalmboek.nl|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180120223538/http://www.psalmboek.nl/capella-muzieksoftware-review.php|archive-date=20 January 2018|df=dmy-all}}</ref> English, Finnish, French, German, Polish
| language count         = 7
| language footnote      = 
| genre                  = [[Scorewriter]] (music notation)
| license                = [[Proprietary software]]
| alexa                  = 
| website                = {{URL|http://www.capella-software.com}}
}}
'''capella''' is a [[musical notation]] program or [[scorewriter]] developed by the German company ''capella-software AG'' (formerly WHC), running on [[Microsoft Windows]]<ref name="SOS_2006-11"/> or corresponding [[emulators]] in other [[operating system]]s, like [[Wine (software)|Wine]] on [[Linux]]<ref name="WineHQ_Capella"/> and others on [[Macintosh|Apple Macintosh]]. Capella requires to be [[Product activation|activated]] after a trial period of 30 days. The publisher writes the name in lower case letters only. The program was initially created by Hartmut Ring, and is now maintained and developed by Bernd Jungmann.

Capella is one of the earliest computer programs for music notation and has a relatively moderate price compared with [[Finale (software)|Finale]] or [[Sibelius (software)|Sibelius]], though up to version 7 it ran only on Windows. Capella claims to have 300,000 users for the music notation program and 120,000 for the OCR program. Digital sheet music in capella formats is available in various online music libraries, especially in German speaking areas. The German Protestant [[hymnal]] ''{{lang|de|[[Evangelisches Gesangbuch]]}}'' has been digitized using capella software.

Originally available only in [[German language|German]], capella is now available in [[English language|English]] (US and British), [[French language|French]], [[Dutch language|Dutch]], [[Finnish language|Finnish]], [[Polish language|Polish]] (version 5.3) and [[Czech language|Czech]] (capella 2008).

==Features==
The current version is Capella Professional 8.0, which includes guitar chord notation ability, and [[guitar tab]] writing functions, in addition to the standard music notation tools. A ''capella start'' program is offered with several restrictions for a lower price. A free ''capella reader'' can display, print and play a capella score.

Data entry is possible via computer keyboard entirely, via mouse or in a combination with a MIDI keyboard. It is intended for multi staff scores like choir music, or orchestral music.
Capella is a practically oriented application suited for amateur and professional musicians alike. It includes engraving as well as MIDI import and export.

''capella'' can play back the score (the full score or an arbitrary selection of staves) via the computer's sound card, to MIDI devices or using [[Virtual Studio Technology|VST]] modules. ''capella's'' ''captune'' module allows to select the output channels and to fine-tune the sounds.

Version 7 brought ''live voice extraction:'' one can switch between the view on the full score for the whole orchestra and the view on a selection of the staves of one or a group of instruments. On printing and exporting, only the voices being shown in the current view will be used. Specific instruction of individual voices can be marked as "only visible in extracted voice". Live voice extraction is also available in the free Reader program; in the limited version of the editor ''Capella start'', such live voice extractions are not available for editing.

Version 7.1 introduced [[Unicode]] compatibility; [[UTF-8]] is now the standard text encoding format.

=== Current features ===
The following modules are advertised for Capella 7 (February 2016):

==== capella ====
For the production of large complex music scores. Edit and arrange a score of voices/instruments in any number of pages of any number of staves per line, with multiple voice parts per stave. Playback with MIDI sound, import/export with other music software via MusicXML.

==== capella start ====
Cut-down version of capella with up to 4 staves per line, up to 2 voices per stave, and up to 100 bars.

==Technicalities==
The file format of ''capella'' evolved from a proprietary digital encoding ([[filename extension]] *.cap) to an open, [[XML]] text based format called CapXML with extension *.capx. There are CapXML 1.0 and 2.0 formats. Each *.capx file is a [[Zip (file format)|ZIP]] archive containing the actual XML with filename ''score.xml''. CapXML differs from [[MusicXML]] in various aspects, one being that in CapXML the basic node is the [[chord (music)|chord]] which can have one or more notes, whereas in MusicXML the notes of a chord are single nodes which have to be put into relation with one another.<ref name="CapXML_Barcelona"/> Capella can import and export MusicXML files.

Documentation of CapXML and the binary CAP file format, as well as of the programming interface is available for download at the Capella website.

Capella provides a programming interface for [[Python (programming language)|Python]] scripts with a set of [[Class (computer programming)|Python-classes]] providing the ''capella'' object hierarchy. Python scripts can be used as a plug-in to the ''capella'' program or run stand-alone, i.e. within a Capella editing session or externally, directly on the file or group of files. CapXML scores can, of course, be directly processed by any XML-aware software.

Capella-programmer Bernd Jungmann used the Python scripting to produce a [[Braille]]-interface to Capella for blind users with a [[refreshable Braille display]]. Braille printing is possible using the [[German Central Library for the Blind#Braille music facilities|''MakeBraille'' service]] of the [[German Central Library for the Blind]] (DZB - Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Blinde) in Leipzig, which accepts CapXML and MusicXML files as input, and offers its service for private, non-commercial uses only.

==Companion products==
Companion products to ''capella'' provide [[Music OCR]] (Capella Scan, which uses the FineReader engine from the Russian company [[ABBYY FineReader|ABBYY]] to recognize text, including [[Blackletter|Gothic letters]]), music recognition out of audio files (Capella Wave Kit), music teaching and training (''rondo'', ''audite!''), composition aids (''tonica fugata'', with automatic composition of [[polyphony|polyphonic]] sets, [[canon (music)|canons]], and [[fugue]]s), and production of [[accompaniment]] music files or CDs for [[karaoke]]-like uses for amateurs and professionals (Capella Playalong).

;capella-scan
Convert scanned sheet music into a capella score for editing. including transposition.

;capella melody trainer
Personal trainer for singers and instrumentalists.

;capella playAlong
Converts capella, musicXML and MIDI to MP3 format.

;tonica fugata
Add a three- or four-part harmonisation to a melody, compose a canon fugue on a given melody, analyse the harmonies in a given work.

;tonica pop
Add harmonisation in 'pop' style.

==History==
<!-- Deleted image removed: [[File:Screenshot capella-1.01-12.05.1992.png|thumb|right|About page of version 1.01 (DOS), 12.5.1992  {{ffdc|1=Screenshot capella-1.01-12.05.1992.png|log=2015 January 9}}]] -->
Before ''capella'', there was ''tonica'', a program to analyse musical notation. Since some people used tonica mainly to print musical scores, the idea for a scorewriter was born.

The first version was published in 1992 as a program named "Allegro", running under [[MS-DOS]] with its own graphical interface. Since the name was already taken, the name had to be changed - taking the name from the brightest star in the constellation [[Auriga (constellation)|Auriga]], [[Capella (star)|Capella]]. Only the original file name extension ALL was kept for the binary notation file format. The first real ''capella'' is version 1.01 dated 15 May 1992. Version 1.5 was the last MS-DOS Version, published in 1993.

The only alternative back then was the much more expensive [[Finale (software)|Finale]] on [[Atari ST]] or [[Macintosh]], or since 1993 [[Sibelius (software)|Sibelius]] on [[Acorn Computers]].

Version 2 used [[Windows 3.1]]. The file format changed to another proprietary binary format with extension CAP. Many details, including lyrics, were lost in the conversion from ALL to CAP files.

Version 3.0 moved from 16-bit to 32-bit software. The file format changed again, also with some losses in the conversion. This format is internally designated as CAP3. This binary file format was kept, until the XML-based format CapXML 1.0 with extension CAPX was introduced.

In 2004, scripting was introduced.

Capella has always used and uses copy protection; initially by requiring the installation CD to be in the CD reader, today by requiring activation (after a trial period of 30 days).

The company was originally called "whc Musiksoftware", then "whc Musiksoftware GmbH". The name was changed to "capella-software GmbH" in the fall of 2002, changing the legal form from [[Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung|GmbH]] to AG ([[Aktiengesellschaft]]) in March 2011.

Version 8, published in late 2017, is a major rewrite of the program using the [[Qt (software)|Qt]], a [[cross-platform]] [[application framework]] and [[widget toolkit]], which made possible the publication of a version for [[macOS]], i.e. Apple Macintosh. The Reader 8, using the Qt platform, had already been released March 29, 2016, 20 months before the main program.

==See also==
*[[List of music software]]

==References==
<!-- Please insert REFs here in alphabetical order of the value of their NAME parameter. thanks! -->
{{Reflist|refs=

<ref name="CapXML_Barcelona">{{Cite web|
url=http://mfi.math.uni-siegen.de/barcelona.pdf|title=CapXML Design Goals|author=Hartmut Ring
|date=15–16 September 2004|accessdate=19 September 2012|format=Presentation slides for ''Fourth MUSICNETWORK Open Workshop'' in Barcelona|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303204900/http://mfi.math.uni-siegen.de/barcelona.pdf|archive-date=3 March 2016|df=dmy-all}}
</ref>

<ref name="SOS_2006-11">{{cite web
 |title        = Capella 2004
 |url          = https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/capella-2004
 |first        = Derek
 |last         = Johnson
 |access-date  = 16 September 2018
 |date         = November 2006
 |publisher    = Sound on Sound
 |url-status     = live
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20170730045418/http://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/capella-2004#
 |archive-date = 2017-07-30
}}</ref>

<ref name="WineHQ_Capella">{{cite web 
|url= http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=application&iId=4437 
|title=WineHQ - capella professional 
|author=various|work=appdb.winehq.org 
|year=2012 
|accessdate=20 November 2012}}</ref>

<!-- end of reflist -->
}}

==External links==
* [http://www.capella-software.com ''capella'' company homepage (English)]
* [http://bjungmann.privat.t-online.de/capellaBlind-en.htm ''capella-blind'' by Bernd Jungmann]
* [http://wiki.sins942.ch/index.php?title=Hauptseite Independent Wiki on ''capella'' with scripts to download (German)]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20121014053233/http://notensatz.forumprofi.de/capella-f3/ Independent forum on ''capella'' (German)]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20150702102047/http://www.singers.com/a-cappella.html Variations on the term "a capella"]
* [http://www.tobis-notenarchiv.de/bach/07-Choraele/index.htm Scores] in Capella format {{in lang|de|en|ru}}

{{Scorewriters}}

[[Category:Scorewriters]]