MusicXML in digital music libraries

MusicXML is an XML format which retains all the advantages of a markup language. We can cite, among others: the files can be opened and shared in any text editor on a computer; all the versions have been defined according to a document type definition (DTD); it uses a Unicode character table; the files are easy to read, there is complete compatibility between versions and  its licence allows it to be used freely.

The advantages and characteristics of MusicXML have been very much relied upon by research libraries, and musicology research libraries in particular.  One of the most interesting projects in this regard, which came into being in 2006, is Music21 (http://web.mit.edu/music21), developed by MIT using the Python programming language.  As the information about the project on its website states, Music21 makes it possible to answer questions relating to the content of musical works more effectively than would be possible if the MusicXML language had not been used to develop it.  Many of those questions, likely to arise at the beginning of a piece of research, can be answered using this freely available series of tools: how often is a specific chord progression used in the whole of Bach’s oeuvre?  What is the serial matrix at the beginning of Schoenberg’s fourth quartet?  What is the proportion of rhythmic patterns
in a piece of music?

Visualisation, generated using Music21, of the rhythmic structures most frequently used in a Chopin mazurka

MucMuch research consists of analysing hundreds of scores. When it comes to analysing thousands of scores, however, tools such as Music21 are intended, as the musicologist Michael Cuthbert says, to provide a way to “listen faster”.

jMusic is also increasingly often performed in digital formats as Anneleen Van Boxstael’s article points out. (“The dawn of digital sheet music: a look at neoscores”, Fontes Artis Musicae, 61/3, July-September, 2014, pp. 284-289). The use of apps on tablet devices means it is now possible to play music without necessarily having to use a printed score.  A format with the characteristics of MusicXML is absolutely vital if we are to achieve a fully digital performance practice.