As the creator of “The Golden Cage” musical, I would like to be able to license it so that people can perform the show all over the world.
We had a huge success with the musical’s NYC production in 2022, and the recorded film is loved by audiences worldwide. But there are a couple of issues to solve now that we plan to widen the number of viewers who will appreciate this piece.
Problem #1: The sheet music for “The Golden Cage” uses a program called Finale.
Unfortunately, the company that makes Finale recently announced that they’re no longer going to support it moving forward. So, over the past few weeks, the scores need to be converted from Finale to Dorico – another program that will help future-proof the music, for us to continue updating them.
Problem #2: Once the sheet music is in Dorico, the edits from the NYC premiere should be added.
When working with a live pianist and actors/singers, you can see what works immediately (and what doesn’t). For the sake of the show, it’s best to write down what works. Our sheet music should reflect these changes.
Thankfully, I have someone who could help me with these problems. Tim Maurice – a composer/pianist, orchestrator and film composer – works with me as a Creative Facilitator, meaning, I can rely on him to work on the technical aspects of the delivery of musical score.
Migrating “The Golden Cage” Sheet Music to Dorico
Tim Maurice wrote a “tutorial” on how he migrates sheet music from the Finale software into Dorico. Read on to learn about his process.
TIM:
I’m using the XML format to migrate the scores. Basically, I open Finale, export an “XML” file, then bring it into Dorico. However, the structure of the program is a bit different, so there’s a lot of cleaning work to be done!
For example, look at this piece, the beginning of song #4A “Today.” This is how it’s “supposed” to look. We have a couple lines (or “systems”) of music, each with a little text above. These descriptions are specific to the music, so we want to maintain that. Then in the middle of the page, we have a block of text for stage directions. Toward the bottom, there’s more music.
TIM:
When I first bring it into Dorico, it’s all scattered. This is the view from the program. The “song name” is the name of the file, which we don’t want. There’s no composer listed. There’s no piano pedal marking. There’s text overlapping the music, making it difficult to read. All kinds of issues.
TIM:
So, I go through and put things in place. Right now, I’m mainly adjusting the spacing of text and music. These are “layout” issues. You can see how things are arranged in boxes – green boxes for text, blue boxes for music.
TIM:
I’m also mindful of spacing in each syllable of the lyrics so they don’t look crowded.
TIM:
After the cleanup work, it looks much better!
I placed a border around the part name (“Piano Vocal”) and around the song number (“4A”), as this is very conventional. This is also the format we would use for other instruments.
Thinking ahead of this step now will save time later when we want our parts to look consistent.
This is where you come in.
Now that we finally have Tim Maurice again to create arrangements for LIVE theatrical performances of “The Golden Cage”.. I’m asking for your support in raising the final $10,000 to make the show production-ready.
Please consider making a tax-deductible donation at GoldenCageMusical.com to UNLOCK the future of “The Golden Cage” on LIVE theater stages worldwide.
“The Golden Cage” is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization. Donations are tax‐deductible to the extent permitted by law
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