MusicXML

MusicXML is an XML-based file format for representing Western musical notation. The format is proprietary, but fully and openly documented, and can be freely used under a Public License.^[4]

History

MusicXML was developed by Recordare LLC, deriving several key concepts from existing academic formats (such as Walter Hewlett's MuseData and David Huron's Humdrum). It is designed for the interchange of scores, particularly between different scorewriters. MusicXML development is currently managed by MakeMusic following the company's acquisition of Recordare in 2011.^[5][6]

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.^[7] All of these versions were defined by a series of document type definitions (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.^[8][9] The MusicXML DTDs and XSDs are each freely redistributable under the MusicXML Public License.^[10]

Support

As of August 2013, MusicXML is supported to varying degrees by over 170 notation programs.^[11][12] These programs include:

• Most scorewriting programs, including Finale, Sibelius, Overture and MuseScore.
• Most Music OCR programs, including SmartScore and PhotoScore.
• Many music sequencer programs, including Cubase, Logic Pro, SONAR, and Rosegarden.

Additionally, web support is possible through the use of the HTML5 canvas element and JavaScript resulting in the rendering of legible music within a web browser.^[13]

Features include key and time signatures, clefs, beaming information, stem directions, slurs, ornaments, barlines, and written repeats.^[14]

Example

Like all XML-based formats, MusicXML is intended to be easy for automated tools to parse and manipulate. Though it is possible to create MusicXML by hand, interactive score writing programs like Finale and MuseScore greatly simplify the reading, writing, and modifying of MusicXML files.

Representation of middle C on the treble clef created through MusicXML code.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>
<!DOCTYPE score-partwise PUBLIC
    "-//Recordare//DTD MusicXML 3.0 Partwise//EN"
    "http://www.musicxml.org/dtds/partwise.dtd">
<score-partwise version="3.0">
  <part-list>
    <score-part id="P1">
      <part-name>Music</part-name>
    </score-part>
  </part-list>
  <part id="P1">
    <measure number="1">
      <attributes>
        <divisions>1</divisions>
        <key>
          <fifths>0</fifths>
        </key>
        <time>
          <beats>4</beats>
          <beat-type>4</beat-type>
        </time>
        <clef>
          <sign>G</sign>
          <line>2</line>
        </clef>
      </attributes>
      <note>
        <pitch>
          <step>C</step>
          <octave>4</octave>
        </pitch>
        <duration>4</duration>
        <type>whole</type>
      </note>
    </measure>
  </part>
</score-partwise>

The textual representation listed above is verbose; MusicXML v2.0 addresses this by adding a compressed zip format with a .mxl suffix that can make files roughly one-twentieth the size of the uncompressed version.^[16]

See also

• List of document markup languages
• Comparison of document markup languages
• Notation Interchange File Format (NIFF)
• Wikifonia, a MusicXML repository

References

External links

• MusicXML homepage