MCP servers for sheet music: what each one does

How did we find and check these servers?

We searched the official MCP Registry, GitHub, PulseMCP, Glama and mcp.so for sheet music, notation, MuseScore, music21, MusicXML, ABC, LilyPond, Dorico and audio-to-MIDI servers, then opened the README or product page of every server listed here. The directories turned up little on their own: PulseMCP returned one server for “sheet music” and none for “music21”, so most of the list came from GitHub.

In the tables, last activity is the latest release, shown with its version, or else the latest commit on the main branch. “Local” means the server runs on your computer, usually over stdio, and “ChatGPT” means its developer mode. We sent each hosted server an MCP initialize request, the first message any client sends, to see whether it asks for sign-in. We didn’t install or run the local servers, so their features are as their authors describe them. We left out servers that only generate MIDI or audio, DAW controllers, streaming and metadata servers, practice apps, copies of other projects, and repositories whose README doesn’t describe a working server. ScoreStarling is ours, so it appears with the same columns and its limits.

Which MCP servers turn a recording into sheet music?

Three of the servers we opened take a recording and return notation: Mirelo and ScoreStarling are hosted, and audio2score-mcp runs locally. Three more stop short of a score: audiolla and a MuScriptor server return MIDI, and fingerstyle-tab-mcp writes text tablature.

The two hosted servers are built for different jobs. Mirelo’s is mostly sound-effect tools; its Audio-to-MIDI tool returns files and detects the tempo unless you give one, and its plugin README lists no tools for editing a score. ScoreStarling detects the tempo unless you give one and keeps the score in your account, where you can correct notes, hear a change before applying it, transpose and export; it is waiting for review in the ChatGPT and Claude directories. Mirelo is also our band partner inside ScoreStarling. audio2score-mcp stops at files on purpose and leaves editing to your notation app. The MuScriptor server needs a Hugging Face sign-in to download its model, whose weights are for non-commercial use.

Which MCP servers render or write notation?

Five servers turn notation that the assistant writes, as ABC, LilyPond, JSON or MusicXML, into something you can see, hear or print. None of them transcribes a recording.

The official example is the smallest: its one tool, play-sheet-music, takes ABC and draws it in hosts that support MCP Apps, and a copy at example-server.modelcontextprotocol.io answered our handshake without sign-in. Music Studio’s hosted address did too. Gradus is a local package that sends scores to its maker’s hosted API without a key and asks agents to credit Gradus when they show its output; it also analyzes harmony and checks engraving against a cited rulebook. lilypond-mcp runs a WebAssembly build of LilyPond, and raulkivi’s rendering server uses Verovio, the engraver we use too.

Is there an MCP server for MuseScore, Dorico or Finale?

Yes: we found five for MuseScore, two for Dorico and one for Finale, all independent projects on GitHub that run on your computer next to the app.

They work through each app’s own interfaces: MuseScore’s plugins, extension host or command line; Dorico’s Remote Control API, which you allow in Dorico, through a preference or a prompt on first connection; or an RGP Lua script in Finale. FinaleMCP’s README notes that Finale was discontinued in August 2024 but still runs. None of them imports audio. JordanSucher’s server still appears in directories but hasn’t changed since April 2025, so we would try mcp-musescore and mcp-score first; mcp-score calls itself alpha. The only official MCP Registry entry with “musescore” in its name, @chrischall/musescore-mcp, is a local package for Claude that searches the musescore.com site through your signed-in browser instead of editing scores; it was last published on September 28, 2026, and its GitHub repository returned 404 when we checked.

Is there a music21 MCP server for music analysis?

Several. music21 is, in its own documentation’s words, “a Python-based toolkit for computer-aided musicology,” and these servers use it or similar engines to answer questions about keys, chords, cadences and voice leading in MIDI, MusicXML or MEI files.

The most-starred, music21-mcp-server, needs a source install: the pip package its README names wasn’t on PyPI when we checked, and its main branch last changed on March 19, 2026. It also offers a local HTTP API beside the MCP server. encoding-music-mcp comes from the University of Melbourne’s data analytics platform and suits scholarly MEI editions. THIRI answers chord questions rather than reading whole scores.

Which other sheet music MCP servers are worth knowing?

Two jobs sit next to transcription: reading printed music into a digital score, and finding public-domain scores.

To read printed music on your own computer instead, the omr-mcp server in raulkivi’s set above turns a photo or scan into MusicXML, and ScoreBridge, in the MuseScore table, has the assistant read the page and write it out through MuseScore. All of them work from images of a page, not from audio.

How do you choose a sheet music MCP server?

Start from the job, then check where the server runs.

• For an editable score from a recording inside a chat app, use a hosted recording-to-notation server: ScoreStarling with a free account, or Mirelo with a Mirelo account. Compare how each sets the tempo, how long a take can be and which files come back.
• To keep working in MuseScore, Dorico or Finale, use one of the app servers. They need the app installed on the same computer, usually open, and a client that runs local servers.
• For analysis or teaching, try a music21 server or Gradus; for MEI editions, encoding-music-mcp.
• For the assistant to write and show music, use Music Studio or the Sheet Music Server example for ABC, or lilypond-mcp for LilyPond.

Hosted servers are the kind you can add to ChatGPT, or to Claude on the web and on a phone, but your files go to the provider, and most need an account with it. ChatGPT’s developer mode connects with OAuth or no authentication, while Claude’s custom connector form also takes fixed request headers such as an API key (both checked October 3, 2026). Local servers keep files on your machine and need Python or Node and a desktop client such as Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor or VS Code. Either way, read the last-activity column: four of the GitHub projects here had no commit on their main branch in the six months before we checked.