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									Department of Music
									Stanford University
									Stanford, CA. 94305
Arnold Broido, President						Semptember 15, 1976
Theodore Presser Company
Presser Place
Bryn Mawr, PA.

Dear Mr. Broido,

	I am very glad that you found my music printing system to be interesting.

Mr. Bernard Kalban, of Marks Music Corp. has written me requesting copies of the

material you showed to him.  I have sent these things off to him today.      

	To give you some idea of time requirments I have run a fairly typical

example of piano music.  The first sheet shows the printed output and the second

shows everything the operator must type to produce the first version of the music.

The second step, the editing and adding of other items, involves quite a bit less

typing.  Here the time is spent in making the fine adjustment of the curvature

of slurs and the exact positioning of things such as the "8va".  I am always in

the process of adding more possibilities to the automatic features.  For example

there is no reason why the "8va" can't be placed automatically.  The structure of

the program is such that new features can be added fairly easily.

	You asked about the skill needed to operate this system.  Several Stanford

music students have learned to use it.  Many extensive pieces have been produced.

I have never found it necessary to give more than two or three hours of instruction.

Students who have done a bit of music copying and are adequate typists develop a

good working skill after just a few sessions.  I am in the process of writing a

self-teaching method for the system which will utilize the computer's capability

as a teaching aid.  When this is done very little personal instruction will be 

needed.

	When this is turned into a production system it will probably be best to

have a group of semi-skilled operators (4 to 6 on a mini-computer system) typing

in the basic data (as seen on the second sheet of my example.)  These operators 

need have no more background than the average 1st year college music student.

Then there would be one or two editors who would plan page layouts before giving

the material to the operators and who would also do the editing for the final copy.

As things stand right now it only takes about 10 minutes to change, say a five 

page layout to a six page one.  However I plan to develop a special system for 

this which should make it possible to try out several different layouts in a 

just a few minutes.

	While I believe my process can successfully compete with other methods

in "ordinary" piano and vocal music, where it will save the most time is in the

field of orchestral and ensemble music.  Orchestra scores can be prepared in an

average of less than 5 minutes a staff line.  However the players parts can then

be produced in 5 to 10 minutes per page.  All standard transpositions, Bb, A, F

and Eb are automatic.  It is quite simple to produce alternate parts for Trumpet

in C or Bb, or Clarinet in A or Bb, etc.  Given the nature of computerized systems 

it is reasonable to expect that this process will continue to become easier and 

faster to use and more and more flexible.


					Very sincerely,



					Leland Smith
					Professor of Music