Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....
-based music notation file format.
It was developed by Recordare LLC, deriving several key concepts from existing academic formats (such as Walter Hewlett's MuseData
MuseData
The MuseData collection of virtual musical scores aims to represent the logical content of the standard classical repertory from 1690 to 1890 in a software-neutral fashion...
and David Huron's Humdrum). It is designed for the interchange of scores, particularly between different scorewriter
Scorewriter
A scorewriter, or music notation program, is software used for creating sheet music.A scorewriter is to music notation what a word processor is to text.-Comparison with multitrack sequencer software:...
s.
Version 1.0 was released in January 2004. Version 1.1 was released in May 2005 with improved formatting support. Version 2.0 was released in June 2007 and included a standard compressed format. All of these versions were defined by a series of document type definition
Document Type Definition
Document Type Definition is a set of markup declarations that define a document type for SGML-family markup languages...
s (DTDs). An XML Schema Definition (XSD) implementation of Version 2.0 was released in September 2008. Version 3.0 was released in August 2011 with improved virtual instrument support, in both DTD and XSD versions.
As of August 2011, MusicXML is supported to varying degrees by over 150 notation programs. These programs include:
A scorewriter, or music notation program, is software used for creating sheet music.A scorewriter is to music notation what a word processor is to text.-Comparison with multitrack sequencer software:...
Music OCR is the application of optical character recognition to interpret sheet music or printed scores into editable and, often, playable form. Once captured digitally, the music can be saved in commonly used file formats, e.g...
SmartScore is a music OCR and scorewriter program, developed, published and distributed by Musitek Corporation based in Ojai, California, . As of March 2010, there are over 35,000 registered users of Musitek software worldwide....
The music sequencer is a device or computer software to record, edit, play back the music, by handling note and performance information in several forms, typically :...
Cubase is a music software product developed by Steinberg for music recording, arranging and editing as part of a Digital Audio Workstation. It is one of the oldest DAWs to still enjoy widespread use...
MAGIX Samplitude is a computer program made by MAGIX for recording, editing, mixing, mastering and outputting audio. The first version was released in 1992 for the Amiga and three years later for Microsoft Windows...
Free and open-source software or free/libre/open-source software is software that is liberally licensed to grant users the right to use, study, change, and improve its design through the availability of its source code...
MuseScore is free and open source music notation software for Microsoft Windows, Mac and Linux. MuseScore is a WYSIWYG editor, complete with support for score playback and import–export of MusicXML and standard MIDI files...
Rosegarden is a free software digital audio workstation program developed for Linux with ALSA and QT4. It acts as an audio and MIDI sequencer, scorewriter and musical composition and editing tool...
.
The MusicXML DTDs and XSDs are each freely redistributable under the MusicXML Public License.
Example
Like all XML-based formats, MusicXML is easy for automated tools to parse
Parsing
In computer science and linguistics, parsing, or, more formally, syntactic analysis, is the process of analyzing a text, made of a sequence of tokens , to determine its grammatical structure with respect to a given formal grammar...
and manipulate. Though it is possible to create MusicXML by hand, interactive score writing
Scorewriter
A scorewriter, or music notation program, is software used for creating sheet music.A scorewriter is to music notation what a word processor is to text.-Comparison with multitrack sequencer software:...
programs like Finale and MuseScore greatly simplify the reading, writing, and modifying of MusicXML files.
The following example is a score consisting of a single whole note
Whole note
thumb|right|250px|Figure 1. A whole note and a whole rest.In music, a whole note or semibreve is a note represented by a hollow oval note head, like a half note , and no note stem . Its length is equal to four beats in 4/4 time...
C or Do is the first note of the fixed-Do solfège scale. Its enharmonic is B.-Middle C:Middle C is designated C4 in scientific pitch notation because of the note's position as the fourth C key on a standard 88-key piano keyboard...
C major is a musical major scale based on C, with pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. Its key signature has no flats/sharps.Its relative minor is A minor, and its parallel minor is C minor....
.
"-//Recordare//DTD MusicXML 3.0 Partwise//EN"
"http://www.musicxml.org/dtds/partwise.dtd"> Music
Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....
-based music notation file format.
It was developed by Recordare LLC, deriving several key concepts from existing academic formats (such as Walter Hewlett's MuseData
MuseData
The MuseData collection of virtual musical scores aims to represent the logical content of the standard classical repertory from 1690 to 1890 in a software-neutral fashion...
and David Huron's Humdrum). It is designed for the interchange of scores, particularly between different scorewriter
Scorewriter
A scorewriter, or music notation program, is software used for creating sheet music.A scorewriter is to music notation what a word processor is to text.-Comparison with multitrack sequencer software:...
s.
Version 1.0 was released in January 2004. Version 1.1 was released in May 2005 with improved formatting support. Version 2.0 was released in June 2007 and included a standard compressed format. All of these versions were defined by a series of document type definition
Document Type Definition
Document Type Definition is a set of markup declarations that define a document type for SGML-family markup languages...
s (DTDs). An XML Schema Definition (XSD) implementation of Version 2.0 was released in September 2008. Version 3.0 was released in August 2011 with improved virtual instrument support, in both DTD and XSD versions.
As of August 2011, MusicXML is supported to varying degrees by over 150 notation programs. These programs include:
A scorewriter, or music notation program, is software used for creating sheet music.A scorewriter is to music notation what a word processor is to text.-Comparison with multitrack sequencer software:...
Music OCR is the application of optical character recognition to interpret sheet music or printed scores into editable and, often, playable form. Once captured digitally, the music can be saved in commonly used file formats, e.g...
SmartScore is a music OCR and scorewriter program, developed, published and distributed by Musitek Corporation based in Ojai, California, . As of March 2010, there are over 35,000 registered users of Musitek software worldwide....
The music sequencer is a device or computer software to record, edit, play back the music, by handling note and performance information in several forms, typically :...
Cubase is a music software product developed by Steinberg for music recording, arranging and editing as part of a Digital Audio Workstation. It is one of the oldest DAWs to still enjoy widespread use...
MAGIX Samplitude is a computer program made by MAGIX for recording, editing, mixing, mastering and outputting audio. The first version was released in 1992 for the Amiga and three years later for Microsoft Windows...
Free and open-source software or free/libre/open-source software is software that is liberally licensed to grant users the right to use, study, change, and improve its design through the availability of its source code...
MuseScore is free and open source music notation software for Microsoft Windows, Mac and Linux. MuseScore is a WYSIWYG editor, complete with support for score playback and import–export of MusicXML and standard MIDI files...
Rosegarden is a free software digital audio workstation program developed for Linux with ALSA and QT4. It acts as an audio and MIDI sequencer, scorewriter and musical composition and editing tool...
.
The MusicXML DTDs and XSDs are each freely redistributable under the MusicXML Public License.
Example
Like all XML-based formats, MusicXML is easy for automated tools to parse
Parsing
In computer science and linguistics, parsing, or, more formally, syntactic analysis, is the process of analyzing a text, made of a sequence of tokens , to determine its grammatical structure with respect to a given formal grammar...
and manipulate. Though it is possible to create MusicXML by hand, interactive score writing
Scorewriter
A scorewriter, or music notation program, is software used for creating sheet music.A scorewriter is to music notation what a word processor is to text.-Comparison with multitrack sequencer software:...
programs like Finale and MuseScore greatly simplify the reading, writing, and modifying of MusicXML files.
The following example is a score consisting of a single whole note
Whole note
thumb|right|250px|Figure 1. A whole note and a whole rest.In music, a whole note or semibreve is a note represented by a hollow oval note head, like a half note , and no note stem . Its length is equal to four beats in 4/4 time...
C or Do is the first note of the fixed-Do solfège scale. Its enharmonic is B.-Middle C:Middle C is designated C4 in scientific pitch notation because of the note's position as the fourth C key on a standard 88-key piano keyboard...
C major is a musical major scale based on C, with pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. Its key signature has no flats/sharps.Its relative minor is A minor, and its parallel minor is C minor....
.
"-//Recordare//DTD MusicXML 3.0 Partwise//EN"
"http://www.musicxml.org/dtds/partwise.dtd"> Music
Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....
-based music notation file format.
It was developed by Recordare LLC, deriving several key concepts from existing academic formats (such as Walter Hewlett's MuseData
MuseData
The MuseData collection of virtual musical scores aims to represent the logical content of the standard classical repertory from 1690 to 1890 in a software-neutral fashion...
and David Huron's Humdrum). It is designed for the interchange of scores, particularly between different scorewriter
Scorewriter
A scorewriter, or music notation program, is software used for creating sheet music.A scorewriter is to music notation what a word processor is to text.-Comparison with multitrack sequencer software:...
s.
Version 1.0 was released in January 2004. Version 1.1 was released in May 2005 with improved formatting support. Version 2.0 was released in June 2007 and included a standard compressed format. All of these versions were defined by a series of document type definition
Document Type Definition
Document Type Definition is a set of markup declarations that define a document type for SGML-family markup languages...
s (DTDs). An XML Schema Definition (XSD) implementation of Version 2.0 was released in September 2008. Version 3.0 was released in August 2011 with improved virtual instrument support, in both DTD and XSD versions.
As of August 2011, MusicXML is supported to varying degrees by over 150 notation programs. These programs include:
A scorewriter, or music notation program, is software used for creating sheet music.A scorewriter is to music notation what a word processor is to text.-Comparison with multitrack sequencer software:...
Music OCR is the application of optical character recognition to interpret sheet music or printed scores into editable and, often, playable form. Once captured digitally, the music can be saved in commonly used file formats, e.g...
SmartScore is a music OCR and scorewriter program, developed, published and distributed by Musitek Corporation based in Ojai, California, . As of March 2010, there are over 35,000 registered users of Musitek software worldwide....
The music sequencer is a device or computer software to record, edit, play back the music, by handling note and performance information in several forms, typically :...
Cubase is a music software product developed by Steinberg for music recording, arranging and editing as part of a Digital Audio Workstation. It is one of the oldest DAWs to still enjoy widespread use...
MAGIX Samplitude is a computer program made by MAGIX for recording, editing, mixing, mastering and outputting audio. The first version was released in 1992 for the Amiga and three years later for Microsoft Windows...
Free and open-source software or free/libre/open-source software is software that is liberally licensed to grant users the right to use, study, change, and improve its design through the availability of its source code...
MuseScore is free and open source music notation software for Microsoft Windows, Mac and Linux. MuseScore is a WYSIWYG editor, complete with support for score playback and import–export of MusicXML and standard MIDI files...
Rosegarden is a free software digital audio workstation program developed for Linux with ALSA and QT4. It acts as an audio and MIDI sequencer, scorewriter and musical composition and editing tool...
.
The MusicXML DTDs and XSDs are each freely redistributable under the MusicXML Public License.
Example
Like all XML-based formats, MusicXML is easy for automated tools to parse
Parsing
In computer science and linguistics, parsing, or, more formally, syntactic analysis, is the process of analyzing a text, made of a sequence of tokens , to determine its grammatical structure with respect to a given formal grammar...
and manipulate. Though it is possible to create MusicXML by hand, interactive score writing
Scorewriter
A scorewriter, or music notation program, is software used for creating sheet music.A scorewriter is to music notation what a word processor is to text.-Comparison with multitrack sequencer software:...
programs like Finale and MuseScore greatly simplify the reading, writing, and modifying of MusicXML files.
The following example is a score consisting of a single whole note
Whole note
thumb|right|250px|Figure 1. A whole note and a whole rest.In music, a whole note or semibreve is a note represented by a hollow oval note head, like a half note , and no note stem . Its length is equal to four beats in 4/4 time...
C or Do is the first note of the fixed-Do solfège scale. Its enharmonic is B.-Middle C:Middle C is designated C4 in scientific pitch notation because of the note's position as the fourth C key on a standard 88-key piano keyboard...
C major is a musical major scale based on C, with pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. Its key signature has no flats/sharps.Its relative minor is A minor, and its parallel minor is C minor....
.
"-//Recordare//DTD MusicXML 3.0 Partwise//EN"
"http://www.musicxml.org/dtds/partwise.dtd"> Music
1 0
G 2
C 4
4 whole
The output in standard musical notation looks like this:
The textual representation listed above is verbose; MusicXML v2.0 addresses this by adding a compressed
Data compression
In computer science and information theory, data compression, source coding or bit-rate reduction is the process of encoding information using fewer bits than the original representation would use....
Zip is a file format used for data compression and archiving. A zip file contains one or more files that have been compressed, to reduce file size, or stored as is...
format with a .mxl suffix that can make files roughly 20 times smaller than their uncompressed version.
The following tables compare general and technical information for a number of document markup languages. Please see the individual markup languages' articles for further information.-General information:...
