Yahoo Tuning Groups Ultimate Backup tuning SMDL - Standard Music Description Language

Looks like someone else thought of it already...!!!

<http://www.oasis-open.org/cover/gen-apps.html#smdl>

SMDL - Standard Music Description Language, ISO/IEC DIS 10743:1995

[CR: 19990609] [Table of Contents]

SMDL is organized by Working Group 3 of ISO/IEC JTC1/SC34 (Information
Association). "The Standard Music Description Language (SMDL), an
application of the HyTime Hypermedia/Time-based document structuring
facilities, is described. The discussion covers the domains of information
that SMDL associates with any piece of music, the timing of cantus events,
pitch in cantus events, gamut-based pitches, just-intoned pitches,
user-defined functions for pitches, chords and chord symbols, instrumental
and vocal sounds, and non-western music." [from Steven R. Newcomb]

[] John T. Payne - PO Box 4534 - Boulder, CO 80306
[] http://www.well.com/user/satyr/ - satyr@well.com

🔗John Payne <satyr@well.com>

🔗JSZANTO@ADNC.COM

--- In tuning@y..., John Payne <satyr@w...> wrote:
> Actually, since SMDL is based on SGML

... and etc. There is also Java Music Specification Language:

http://www.algomusic.com/jmsl/index.html

Not as all-encompassing as the proposed XML project, but worth a look
maybe. Also, how and who writes the processor for any new tags that
get written? Is it all built into the specs for declaring/defining a
new tag, and the parser/processor knows how to handle any new tag
definition?

This is NOT trivial stuff...

Cheers,
Jon

🔗John Payne <satyr@well.com>

> Also, how and who writes the processor for any new tags that get
> written? Is it all built into the specs for declaring/defining a new
> tag, and the parser/processor knows how to handle any new tag
> definition?

Ummm, you *can* make up your own tags, but if you're using a predefined
tag set, which is what I was proposing, it's best to stick with what's
provided in that set. It's important for XML applications to do version
tracking, so processors know what to expect.

But it turns out that my proposal was moot...VERY moot!

It's been done, multiple times.

The thing to do at this point is to figure out which bandwagon to climb
onto, and the answer to that question is probably to be found somewhere
on this page...

http://xml.coverpages.org/xmlMusic.html

[] John T. Payne - PO Box 4534 - Boulder, CO 80306
[] http://www.well.com/user/satyr/ - satyr@well.com

🔗carl@lumma.org

🔗John Payne <satyr@well.com>

> I don't know how the scope of these efforts compares to what you're
> after... write back and tell us what you think.

What I'm finding is all over the map, which is another way of saying that
all the bases are covered, by one project or another. Now, if only they
would all just get together and agree on a standard... ;-)

Here's what I've got so far:

MARKUP
SGML
HyTime
http://www.hytime.org/
Standard Music Description Language (SMDL)
http://xml.coverpages.org/gen-apps.html#smdl
Music Tagging Type Definition (MuTaTeD) (integrates SMDL and NIFF)
http://www.pads.ahds.ac.uk/mutated
Music Markup Language (MML)
http://www.mmlxml.org/
XML
4ML
http://sourceforge.net/projects/fourml/
FlowML (Related to Q-Orchestra)
http://qorchestra.sourceforge.net/FlowML.pdf
MusicXML
http://www.musicxml.org/xml.html
MusiXML
http://www.s-line.de/homepages/gerd_castan/compmus/MusiXML_e.html
eXtensible Score Language (XScore)
http://fn2.freenet.edmonton.ab.ca/~rgrigait/xscore/
DATA FORMAT
MIDI
http://www.midi.org/
eXtensible Music Format (XMF - acronymn conflict, may have to change)
designated successor to RMF, Sun and MIDI both participants *
Structured Audio Orchestra Language (SAOL)
http://www.saol.net/
Notation Interchange File Format (NIFF) (Related to SMDL)
http://www.student.brad.ac.uk/srmounce/niff.html
PRORAMMING
JAVA
JavaSound
http://java.sun.com/products/java-media/sound/
Java Music Specification Language
http://www.algomusic.com/jmsl/index.html
Rusty
http://members.fortunecity.com/odradek5/pp/rustyprogress.html
Silence
http://www.pipeline.com/~gogins/Silence/Silence.htm
FORTH
Hierarchical Music Specification Language (HMSL)
http://www.softsynth.com/hmsl/
OTHER
OpenAL
http://www.openal.org/home/
Q-Orchestra (Related to SAOL)
http://qorchestra.sourceforge.net/

* Beatnik is working with the MIDI Manufacturer's Association (MMA) to
standardize a new generation of enhanced music files derived from
Beatnik's RMF format. This will be an open file standard called eXtensible
Music Format (XMF). XMF is targeted specifically for wireless devices and
Web-based audio applications. http://www.beatnik.com/general/company.html

The division of the various projects into markup, data formats, and
programming isn't clear cut. For instance, XML files can (and frequently
do) serve as interchange file formats, and there would typically be a
tight correspondence between the structure of a markup language or of a
data format and the programming libraries that use them.

Ideally it all works together smoothly.

[] John T. Payne - PO Box 4534 - Boulder, CO 80306
[] http://www.well.com/user/satyr/ - satyr@well.com

🔗graham@microtonal.co.uk

I had a look at this stuff a while back. MusicML is a simple XML for
staff notation, but way too simple, even before you get to microtonality.
SDML looks interesting, but it's *big*! If anybody spends the time to
understand it, I'd appreciate a summary of its tuning capabilities here.
From what I saw it was good, but I'm hazy on the details.

What I really expect from an XML-type tuning standard is the ability to
represent the same music multiple ways. In simple terms, this could mean
either staff notation or guitar tablature. Beyond that, the same piece in
meantone/31, 6*12, decimal, or 12-equal+cents differences notation. Then,
we can put all the notation wars behind us.

Getting outside of staff notation altogether is a bigger problem. Let's
get the simple one solved first!

Graham

🔗John Payne <satyr@well.com>

> I had a look at this stuff a while back. MusicML is a simple XML for
> staff notation, but way too simple, even before you get to microtonality.

Yes, here's what Gerd Castan, creator of MusiXML had to say about
MusicML...

"MusicML almost can't represent anything but notes and rests. Even
staccato points and slurs are missing. MusicML is dead. The authors are
working on an XML database"
<http://www.s-line.de/homepages/gerd_castan/compmus/notationformats_e.html#MusicML>

I left it out of the list on that basis. There's several with very
similar names. In particular, these are prone to confusion...

Music Markup Language (MML)
http://www.mmlxml.org/
MusicXML
http://www.musicxml.org/xml.html
MusiXML
http://www.s-line.de/homepages/gerd_castan/compmus/MusiXML_e.html

Rest assured, they're all distinct from each other and also distinct from
MusicML.

> SDML looks interesting, but it's *big*!

Here's what Gerd says about SMDL...

"SMDL (ISO/IEC 10743) is also a standard. It builds on SGML (ISO 8879) and
HyTime (ISO/IEC 10744). The problem: this standard isn't finished. The
project members waited for the second edition of HyTime which was finished
in 1997.

"New (december 1999): There are surprising news about SMDL. It will soon
be finished and published in an XML-compatible form that conforms to
HyTime 2. Surprising is both, that it will be finished and that it will be
XML-compatible. And both are absolutely necessary for SMDL to be
successful."

That's excellent news, if true, which it might or might not be. The
reason this would be helpful is that it's much easier to write software to
work with XML than to work with SGML, which is more complex. But I
haven't seen any other references to SMDL being XML compatible, so take it
with a grain of salt.

[] John T. Payne - PO Box 4534 - Boulder, CO 80306
[] http://www.well.com/user/satyr/ - satyr@well.com

🔗John Payne <satyr@well.com>

SMDL is a HyTime application, which is itself an SGML application.

Hypermedia/Time-based Structuring Language (HyTime - ISO/IEC 10744)
<http://www.ornl.gov/sgml/wg8/docs/n1920/html/n1920.html>

"HyTime provides standardized mechanisms for specifying interconnections
(hyperlinks) within and between documents and other information objects,
and for scheduling multimedia information in time and space.

"Without HyTime, such information is typically embedded in the processing
instructions of hypermedia "scripts" that govern the rendition of such
documents, and is therefore not usable for other forms of processing. When
HyTime is used, those properties of the information that are independent
of specific processing are available for processing by applications and
platforms other than the one on which the information was created.

"It is for the application designer and user to decide which properties
can be isolated from the scripts in this way. In an ideal world, the sole
consideration would be whether the properties are intrinsic to the
information, regardless of how it is processed. For example, the title of
this clause is intrinsic information; the font that it appears in normally
is not.

"In the real world, representation strategies will vary from one situation
to another and will depend on such other considerations as the expected
uses of the information, the flexibility of the scripting language, and
performance considerations. For this reason, HyTime is highly modularized
so that application designers need use only the facilities for the
properties they care to describe in a standardized way."

From <http://www.student.brad.ac.uk/srmounce/smdl.html>...

"SMDL is a HyTime application conforming to International Standard ISO/IEC
10744 Hypermedia/ Time-based Structuring Language and an SGML application
conforming to International Standard ISO 8879 Standard Generalized Mark-up
Language.

"SMDL (and its' underlying standards) are text based mark-up languages
which are human readable (in a similar, albeit more complex, way to
HTML). Mark-up languages allow a document to be described as a hierarchy
of logical elements. An example of SMDL mark-up containing one pitched
note and a rest follows:

</ces>

Further on he speaks to the current status of the project...

"The latest news is as follows. I was contacted by James Mason (Chairman
ISO/IEC JTC1/SC34) in January 2000. He reported that some work was
restarted on SMDL in Philadelphia December 1999. Steve Newcomb the
original editor and later co-editor and Kimber Eliot, chief editor of the
second version of HyTime, spent some time on a plan to finish SMDL. Eliot
was trying to rebuild the standard using a UML tool. The idea was to
complete the standard and publish in an XML-compatible form that conforms
to HyTime 2."

The same fellow wrote an article on SMDL, which appears here...

<http://www.student.brad.ac.uk/srmounce/smdl2.html>

[] John T. Payne - PO Box 4534 - Boulder, CO 80306
[] http://www.well.com/user/satyr/ - satyr@well.com