Multimedia & Audio · Reviewed
Finale
A music-notation and engraving application for composing scores, preparing individual parts and controlling the detailed printed presentation of musical notation.
Overview
Finale is designed for written music rather than primarily for editing an audio performance. Composers, arrangers and publishers can enter notes, organize staves, add musical instructions and refine a score's appearance. Extracted or linked parts help turn a full score into material for individual performers.
Playback provides a way to audition work, but page layout and engraving control are central to the application. It supports demanding notation tasks that require more than a simple melody staff. Its breadth also means that productive use depends on learning specialized tools and the conventions of musical typography.
Key features
- Score entry and editing
- Detailed engraving and page layout
- Parts preparation
- Playback for reviewing compositions
- MusicXML and other interchange workflows
Historical significance
Finale helped move professional score preparation from dedicated engraving systems and manual production onto personal computers. It gave composers and publishers detailed control over notation while connecting composition, editing and printing. Its discontinuation also highlights a preservation issue specific to creative software: retaining a file is not the same as retaining an environment that reproduces every detail correctly.
History and development
Coda Music Technology introduced Finale in 1988. Over the following decades, the software became part of composition, education and publishing workflows, with later development under MakeMusic. Its evolution added more extensive playback, part preparation and interchange capabilities.
MakeMusic announced the end of Finale development in August 2024 and directed users toward Dorico. That announcement is an important endpoint in the product's development history, although existing installations and archived projects remain separate practical matters. MusicXML export provides one route for transferring musical information, with layout and specialized notation requiring inspection after conversion.