Partifi Overview: An Automated Tool for Creating Parts from Music Scores

by Netta Shahar | Jan 22, 2018

Partifi is an online platform that allows users to create individual parts from a music score. This tool was originally developed in order to encourage the study and performance of historical music, for which instrumental parts are often not available. Partifi has outgrown its original purpose and has become a go-to solution when the only available resource is the full music score. It is important to emphasize that the content quality of the individual parts will depend on the condition of the full score.

Creating Individual Parts from Scores

In order to get decent results, make sure the original score has:

A good resolution of at least 300 DPI
Spacing between staff lines
A straight system

Obviously, creating parts from an exported PDF or any other file exported by a notation software will yield better results owing to the image quality of the original document.

Partifi allows users to create new individual parts in four easy steps.

STEP 1: Importing the Score

Users can either import a PDF file.

STEP 2: Labelling the Segments

The next step allows users to::

Check the placement of the red line breaks
Label the parts
Adjust the margins

Keep in mind that the platform will automatically fill in suggestions for the rest of the piece based on the labelling of the first page. If the instrumentation changes at any point in the score, the labels will have to be adjusted accordingly.

STEP 3: Previewing the Parts

A table of contents will appear on the left-hand side of the screen – to preview a particular part, simply select it from the menu. The platform allows users to add page breaks to separate a part into different movements or prevent inconvenient page turns (a dotted red line will appear when the cursor is hovered over the relevant section; click to add the page break). The control panel located on the right-hand side of the screen allow users to reduce staff line spacing.

STEP 4: Downloading & Sharing the Partis

At this stage, users can choose their preferred file format: letter size or A4.

Finally, Partifi provides users with two different links:

The Editor Link – This link allows users to go back and edit the score.
The Download Link – This link allows users to share the finished parts.

Partifi Downloading & Sharing the Partis

Result: A Violin Part Created with Partifi

To conclude, Partifi is a useful solution for librarians who don’t have time to create new parts from scratch (digitally or manually), providing the original score is in decent condition.