diff --git a/VERSION b/VERSION
index 26c061c..42f91b4 100644
--- a/VERSION
+++ b/VERSION
@@ -1,2 +1,2 @@
-2021 April 26 2021
+2021 May 09 2021
 
diff --git a/doc/CHANGES b/doc/CHANGES
index 524a7bd..ed503ab 100644
--- a/doc/CHANGES
+++ b/doc/CHANGES
@@ -14162,3 +14162,13 @@ do not exist in midi files. Using a cumulative beat count does not
 detect the possibility that the bar lines can realign because of
 two errors cancelling out. As an experiment, I save only the bar size.
 
+
+May 09 2020
+
+abc2midi, abc2abc, yaps -- compatibility with abcm2ps.
+The %%beginps and %%endps enclose text which should not
+be processed by abc2midi or abc2abc.   The flag ignore_line is set
+to 1 when parseline() encounters "%%beginps" and is reset to 0
+when %%endps" is encountered. If ignore_line is 1, the rest of
+the code in parseline() is ignored when abc2midi is running.
+
diff --git a/doc/readme.txt b/doc/readme.txt
index dafab9b..52e34ce 100644
--- a/doc/readme.txt
+++ b/doc/readme.txt
@@ -1,8 +1,8 @@
 abcMIDI :   abc <-> MIDI conversion utilities
 
 midi2abc version 3.47 November 01 2020
-abc2midi version 4.52 April 26 2021
-abc2abc  version 2.12 October 19 2020
+abc2midi version 4.53 May 08 2021
+abc2abc  version 2.13 May 08 2021
 yaps     version 1.86 December 10 2020
 abcmatch version 1.78 March 27 2021
 midicopy version 1.37 October 10 2020
diff --git a/parseabc.c b/parseabc.c
index 3e9f9f4..942c5ab 100644
--- a/parseabc.c
+++ b/parseabc.c
@@ -3149,6 +3149,14 @@ parseline (line)
   if (strcmp(line,"%%endtext") == 0) {
 	  ignore_line = 0;
           }
+  /* [SS] 2021-05-09 */
+  if (strcmp(line,"%%beginps") == 0) {
+	  ignore_line = 1;
+          }
+  if (strcmp(line,"%%endps") == 0) {
+	  ignore_line = 0;
+          }
+
   if ((strncmp(line,"%%temperament",12) == 0) && fileprogram == ABC2MIDI) {
 	  event_temperament(line);
           }
diff --git a/store.c b/store.c
index c856d16..e40922b 100644
--- a/store.c
+++ b/store.c
@@ -186,7 +186,7 @@ int main()
 
 */
 
-#define VERSION "4.52 April 26 2021 abc2midi" 
+#define VERSION "4.53 May 09 2021 abc2midi" 
 
 /* enables reading V: indication in header */
 #define XTEN1 1
diff --git a/toabc.c b/toabc.c
index e78cdae..f13371f 100644
--- a/toabc.c
+++ b/toabc.c
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@
 
 /* back-end for outputting (possibly modified) abc */
 
-#define VERSION "2.13 December 10 2020 abc2abc"
+#define VERSION "2.14 May 09 2021 abc2abc"
 
 /* for Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 or higher */
 #ifdef _MSC_VER