1	Music Encoding Initiative (MEI) Perry Roland University of Virginia pdr4h@virginia.edu http://www.lib.virginia.edu/digital/resndev/mei/
2	History of MEI how it all started work on XML music markup begun (2000), originally named Music Description Language (MDL) activities – ISMIR (2000, 2003), Int'l Conf. on Musical Applications using XML (2002), MusicNetwork Notation Workshop (2003), OASIS Music Notation Technical Committee (2003), Online Chopin Variorum Edition meeting and white paper (2004) current version is 1.6 beta (2005), version 1.7 beta (2006)
3	History of MEI MEI covered in: Electronic Musician (2003), Experiencing Music Technology (2004), XSLT 2.0 (2005) Regarding music markup schemes listed at coverpages.org: "[M]any of these initiatives will bear little fruit [;however,] [t]here are at least two really serious contenders: the Music Encoding Initiative (MEI) and the Standard Music Description Language (SMDL). - Kay, p. 4
4	Why bother? encoding preservation of cultural heritage materials content-based searching analysis re-use interchange provide interoperability among a large number of representations (current & future)
5	Approaches to music encoding audio / performance notation / written artefact selection depends on definition of "musical work"
6	Performance events are not discreet example: a note's pitch may change over time contains ambiguities homophones: C# - D♭ composer "tricks": reinforcement of selected overtones, obscured boundaries, unusual performance methods, ... records a single performance, not generalize-able intellectual property rights problems
7	Notation represents a generic, "Ur" version comprehensive - contains (almost) all info. required for printing, performance, and analysis contains (more or less) discreet "chunks" example: each note has a single pitch provides generally-accepted terminology enormous corpus of copyright-free sources
8	A Good Encoding Is ... declarative – specifies what a thing 'is', not what it looks like human readable (and understandable!) – accurate in its use of names for key concepts and consistent in its terminology formal – verifiable explicit – context independent flexible – allows selective feature encoding extensible – accommodates unknown uses and future development
9	A Good Interchange Standard Is ... software independent comprehensive – generalized N(N-1) vs. N2 translators
10	Advanced Features internal references and annotations rich meta-data header work-level text arbitrary segmentation multiple views variant readings alignment with external material
11	Data Sources printed music (via OMR) notation editor (via GUI or MIDI input)
12	Transformation to MEI Chopin, Barcarolle, op. 60, pg. 9 SharpEye -> MusicXML MusicXML -> MEI
13	MEI Representation <measure n="1"> <staff def="1"> <layer def="1"> <beam> <note id="n1" pname="c" oct="6" dur="16" stem.dir="down" /> <note pname="a" acci="s" oct="5" dur="16" stem.dir="down" /> <note pname="f" oct="5" dur="16" stem.dir="down" /> <note pname="g" oct="5" dur="16" stem.dir="down" /> <note pname="b" acci="s" oct="5" dur="16" stem.dir="down" /> <note pname="a" oct="5" dur="16" stem.dir="down" /> </beam> <beam> <note pname="f" oct="5" dur="16" stem.dir="down" /> <note pname="d" acci="s" oct="5" dur="16" stem.dir="down" /> <note pname="a" acci="s" oct="4" dur="16" stem.dir="down" /> <note pname="c" oct="5" dur="16" stem.dir="down" /> <note pname="e" acci="s" oct="5" dur="16" stem.dir="down" /> <note pname="d" oct="5" dur="16" stem.dir="down" /> </beam> <beam> <note pname="c" oct="6" dur="16" stem.dir="down" /> <note pname="a" acci="s" oct="5" dur="16" stem.dir="down" /> <note pname="f" oct="5" dur="16" stem.dir="down" /> <note pname="g" oct="5" dur="16" stem.dir="down" /> <note pname="b" acci="s" oct="5" dur="16" stem.dir="down" /> <note pname="a" oct="5" dur="16" stem.dir="down" /> </beam> <!-- last beat omitted --> </layer> </staff> <!-- staff 2 omitted --> <hairpin form="dim" staff="1" tstamp="1" dur="12.5" place="below" /> <phrase staff="1" start="n1" end="d0e843" bulge="+" /> <pedal staff="2" tstamp="1" dir="down" /> <pedal staff="2" tstamp="12" dir="up" /> <octave staff="1" place="above" tstamp="1" dis="8" dur="6.5" /> <dir staff="1" place="above" tstamp="7">loco</dir> </measure>
14	MEI Visualization MEI -> Mup (Music Publisher) handles layout plain text notation (PostScript) and MIDI output low cost macro programming language (extensible)
15	MEI Visualization MEI -> MusicXML -> Notation editor currently working on more robust "round trip" (MusicXML -> MEI -> MusicXML) stylesheets
16	Next Steps testing on wider range of material, more review of the DTD creation of direct-to-MEI plug-in creation of a rudimentary MEI editor formulation of an MEI workgroup
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18	Music Encoding Initiative Perry Roland University of Virginia pdr4h@virginia.edu http://www.lib.virginia.edu/digital/resndev/mei/