Gregorio is a specialised music engraving system for producing Gregorian chant scores in square notation. It is designed for musicians, scholars, choirs and religious communities that need to prepare chant notation for performance, study or publication.
The software uses a text-based workflow in which musical information is written using the gabc notation language. Gregorio converts this input into commands understood by GregorioTeX, which works with the TeX typesetting system to produce the finished score.
This separation of musical content and document layout makes Gregorio useful for preparing liturgical books and collections containing multiple chants. Its engraving capabilities are tailored to the conventions of Gregorian notation rather than general Western staff notation.
This is free and open source software.
Key Features
- Gregorian chant engraving – produces scores using traditional square notation.
- gabc input language – describes chant melodies, lyrics and notation using plain text.
- GregorioTeX integration – typesets chant notation within TeX documents.
- Neume notation – supports the musical symbols and groupings used in Gregorian chant.
- Lyric alignment – positions chant syllables in relation to the corresponding musical notation.
- Clefs and notation symbols – handles Gregorian clefs, accidentals, bars and other chant markings.
- Score formatting – provides controls for line spacing, staff layout and notation appearance.
- Document integration – combines multiple chant scores with headings, commentary and other text.
- Custom typography – supports chant-specific musical fonts and typographical conventions.
- PDF production – creates print-ready scores through LuaLaTeX.
- Text-based workflow – allows musical source files to be edited, maintained and version-controlled.
- Reusable notation – simplifies preparing alternate layouts and collections from existing gabc files.
Website: gregorio-project.github.io
Support:
Developer: Gregorio development team
License: GNU General Public License v3.0
Gregorio is written in C, Lua, and Python. Learn C with our recommended free books and free tutorials. Learn Lua with our recommended free books and free tutorials. Learn Python with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
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| Gregorio | Tools for Typesetting Gregorian Chant |
| Canorus | Graphical music score editor written for the Qt4 toolkit |
| Impro-Visor | Educational program designed to help musicians compose and hear solos |
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