mscore3

A python library for opening/inspecting/modifying MuseScore3 files.

Installing

Currently only available from the PyPi repository. Make sure you have the "pip" Python package installer on your system, and run this:

$ pip install mscore3

If you don't have pip, you can install it on debian -based systems using:

$ sudo apt-get install python3-pip

Scripts

Installing this python package gives you the following command-line scripts:

• ms-cleanup
• ms-colorize
• ms-concatenate
• ms-copy-instrument
• ms-create-template
• ms-info
• ms-port-partition
• ms-stem

ms-cleanup

Removes unused elements from a MuseScore3 score.

May delete empty parts (which contain no notes in their measures). You can pass multiple file names, and only delete the empty parts which are common to all of the given scores. This is useful if you are working on a set of scores which will be concatenated using "ms-concatenate".

You can use this script to delete the "Synth" node in a score. This removes any reference to .sf2 soundfonts, useful if moving from SoundFont usage to .SFZ usage. Scores load quicker without a soundfont defined.

ms-colorize

Changes the staff colors. By default, staff colors are changed to a medium gray, allowing notes to stand out with lines still visible.

Unfortunately, there is no MuseScore style setting for these. This script works around that limitation.

ms-concatenate

Concatenates the measures from two or more scores into another score. The purpose of this script is to allow you to work on a section of a very long composition, without "lag" slowing you down. When MuseScore has to interpret and render a very long score, it gets a little slow. Breaking a long composition down into parts gets around that, making your composing experience more pleasant. Note that all sources MUST have the same part / instrument structure.

ms-copy-instrument

Allows you to copy an instrument definition from one score to another. This script will attempt to match the part name in both Source and Target, and copy the best matching part. You will be prompted to confirm the selection if there is no part name which matches exactly.

Useful if you have created a custom instrument which you would like to use in another score.

ms-create-template

Creates an empty score to use as a template from the given score. The created template is always saved in ".mscx" format. You can open it in MuseScore, and save it with an .mscz format from there.

ms-info

Show various information about a MuseScore3 score file.

Info available includes:

ms-port-partition

Re-assigns MIDI port/channels grouped by instrument. Every instrument's "voice" is assigned a sequential MIDI channel. If an instrument has more "voices" (arco, staccato, tremolo, etc.) than there remaining channels on a port, they are assigned to the next available port.

ms-stem

Exports each part to an individual audio file for mixing with a DAW.

Score "signatures" are saved after stemming, so that the next time this script is run, only parts which have changed since the last time are exported.

Programming API

Importing

The import name is "mscore". The package name is "mscore3", only because of a naming conflict in the pypi repository.

Usage

Setting the MIDI channel of a "Harp":

from mscore import Score

score = Score(argv[1])
for part in score.parts():
	if part.name == "Harp":
		for channel in part.channels():
			channel.port = 4
score.save()

Changing the "composer" tag on a bunch of scores:

from mscore import Score, is_score
from pathlib import Path

for path in Path().iterdir():
	if is_score(path):
		score = Score(path)
		score.meta_tag('composer').value = 'Monkey Johnson'
		score.save()

Use "pydoc" to get more details:

pydoc mscore