MusicXML

http://www.recordare.com/xml.html

-C.

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, Carl Lumma <ekin@l...> wrote:
> http://www.recordare.com/xml.html

Great--a highly verbose markup language for musical scores. Two
questions:

1. What about tuning??

2. Is there a score database?

>> http://www.recordare.com/xml.html
>
>Great--a highly verbose markup language for musical scores. Two
>questions:
>
>1. What about tuning??

I browsed the site a bit and saw no mention of tuning. They're
using diatonic "step" names. Dunno about arbitrary accidentals.
I thought someone here might be more familiar than I.

If we can make a proposal, we can ask them to include it.

>2. Is there a score database?

Not that I know of. Instead, the focus is on interop. between
existing notation packages. Turnadot can save as MusicXML,
for example (but not in the demo mode I've got running here).

-Carl

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, Carl Lumma <ekin@l...> wrote:
> >> http://www.recordare.com/xml.html
> >
> >Great--a highly verbose markup language for musical scores. Two
> >questions:
> >
> >1. What about tuning??
>
> I browsed the site a bit and saw no mention of tuning. They're
> using diatonic "step" names. Dunno about arbitrary accidentals.
> I thought someone here might be more familiar than I.
>
> If we can make a proposal, we can ask them to include it.
>
> >2. Is there a score database? >>>>

Hello Carl, Please access
http://archive.mail-list.com/cgi-bin/s.cgi?q=microtone&ul=http%3A%2F%2Farchive.mail-list.com%2Fmusicxml%2F%25
[This 109-character URL reduces to
http://tinyurl.com/2h454 on using http://tinyurl.com/]

There we have postings like "Microtones in MusicXML?
microtonal pitch info?" which say you can put non-integer values in the <alter> element to represent microtones. It also talks about improvements in the areas like better support for MIDI pitch-bends, different temperaments and intonations.

It is perhaps best for the pundits on our list to approach MusicXML development project seriously and systematically -- NOW.

Regards,
Haresh.

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, "Haresh BAKSHI" <hareshbakshi@h...>
wrote:

I'll see if they will let me on the mailing-list here:

http://www.recordare.com/lists/

Carl Lumma wrote:

> Turnadot can save as MusicXML,
> for example (but not in the demo mode I've got running here).

Not true (yet?). It exports graphics and can import xml files generated, if I understand the example correctly, with a scanner program.

klaus

Haresh BAKSHI wrote (24th Dec):

> Hello Carl, Please access
> http://archive.mail-list.com/cgi-bin/s.cgi?q=microtone&ul=http%3A%2F%2Farchive.mail-list.com%2Fmusicxml%2F%25
> [This 109-character URL reduces to > http://tinyurl.com/2h454 on using http://tinyurl.com/]
> > There we have postings like "Microtones in MusicXML?
> microtonal pitch info?" which say you can put non-integer values in the <alter> element to represent microtones. It also talks about improvements in the areas like better support for MIDI pitch-bends, different temperaments and intonations.

I can't get at the messages, but the note DTD defines the pitch format (actually in the comments):

http://www.recordare.com/dtds/note.html

"Pitch is represented as a combination of the step of the
diatonic scale, the chromatic alteration, and the octave.
The step element uses the English letters A through G:
in a future revision, this could expand to international
namings. The alter element represents chromatic
alteration in number of semitones (e.g., -1 for flat,
1 for sharp). Decimal values like 0.5 (quarter tone
sharp) may be used for microtones. The octave element
is represented by the numbers 0 to 9, where 4 indicates
the octave started by middle C."

Graham

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, Graham Breed <graham@m...> wrote:

> "Pitch is represented as a combination of the step of the
> diatonic scale, the chromatic alteration, and the octave.
> The step element uses the English letters A through G:
> in a future revision, this could expand to international
> namings. The alter element represents chromatic
> alteration in number of semitones (e.g., -1 for flat,
> 1 for sharp). Decimal values like 0.5 (quarter tone
> sharp) may be used for microtones. The octave element
> is represented by the numbers 0 to 9, where 4 indicates
> the octave started by middle C."

Not very good, but workable. I wonder if there is a reference pitch?

Gene Ward Smith wrote:

> Not very good, but workable. I wonder if there is a reference pitch?

No reference pitch that I can find, as it happens. But then there's nothing explicit in staff notation either. Or MIDI.

It's workable as a way of getting a computer to churn out a file that another computer might be able to play microtonally. It isn't much use as a readable notation format, which is supposed to be the point of it. It would work if you're using 12-equal-plus-cents notation, or maybe even for multiple-of-12 systems. But the further from that you get, the more pointless it becomes.

Oh, you can do pitch bends as well. See further down the link I originally gave.

http://www.recordare.com/dtds/note.html

And, if all else fails, you can encode standard MIDI files in MusicXML

http://www.recordare.com/dtds/midixml.html

which there may be a use for, but it reminds me too much of the XML encoding of IP

ftp://ftp.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc3252.txt

Graham