Re: MusicXML - how to specify that barline in multi-staff part belongs only to one staff?

HI Dylan,

I apologize for the delay in replying to the issue you raised in GitHub. I’ve been busy getting the MusicXML 4.0 documentation finished in time for our planned June 1 release.

As I have mentioned in the GitHub issue <https://github.com/w3c/musicxml/issues/414>, James is correct that you cannot represent this directly in MusicXML 4.0. I have listed some possible workarounds in GitHub. It’s too late to add this to MusicXML 4.0, but hopefully we can address this in a future MusicXML release.

Best regards,

Michael Good
VP of MusicXML Technologies
MakeMusic, Inc.

> On May 24, 2021, at 5:05 AM, Dylan Nicholson <wizofaus@hotmail.com> wrote:
> 
> (Actually that piece has lots of examples of irregular barline usage - I'm pretty sure all the major typesetting software packages do support all of them, so I assumed the musicxml format would too) 
> 
> From: Dylan Nicholson <wizofaus@hotmail.com>
> Sent: Monday, 24 May 2021 9:58 PM
> To: James Sutton <jsutton@dolphin-com.co.uk>
> Cc: public-music-notation@w3.org <public-music-notation@w3.org>
> Subject: Re: MusicXML - how to specify that barline in multi-staff part belongs only to one staff?
>  
> Hmm ok, well this is an example of the sort of thing I was thinking of (piano transcription of Stravinsky's The Firebird):
> 
> https://aws1.discourse-cdn.com/steinberg/original/3X/e/1/e19d096c06c8fddeb3e1b3db62d56565d24e00a8.jpeg <https://aws1.discourse-cdn.com/steinberg/original/3X/e/1/e19d096c06c8fddeb3e1b3db62d56565d24e00a8.jpeg>
> 
> 
> From: James Sutton <jsutton@dolphin-com.co.uk>
> Sent: Monday, 24 May 2021 9:51 PM
> To: Dylan Nicholson <wizofaus@hotmail.com>
> Cc: public-music-notation@w3.org <public-music-notation@w3.org>
> Subject: Re: MusicXML - how to specify that barline in multi-staff part belongs only to one staff?
>  
> Sorry, I don't think that's possible, but hoping somebody can correct me.
> 
> best regards
> James
> 
>> On 24 May 2021, at 12:34, Dylan Nicholson <wizofaus@hotmail.com <mailto:wizofaus@hotmail.com>> wrote:
>> 
>> Thanks, but not quite, I'm asking about the case where it's just a part, not a part-group. And that setting is for the whole part-group rather than an individual barline.   I.e. on a piano grand staff with a RH and LH staff, if I want some barlines to be broken between the staffs, how is that specified?
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> From: James Sutton <jsutton@dolphin-com.co.uk <mailto:jsutton@dolphin-com.co.uk>>
>> Sent: Monday, 24 May 2021 9:28 PM
>> To: Dylan Nicholson <WizOfAus@hotmail.com <mailto:WizOfAus@hotmail.com>>
>> Cc: public-music-notation@w3.org <mailto:public-music-notation@w3.org> <public-music-notation@w3.org <mailto:public-music-notation@w3.org>>
>> Subject: Re: MusicXML - how to specify that barline in multi-staff part belongs only to one staff?
>>  
>> Hi Dylan,
>> 
>> This may be what you are looking for:
>> 
>> https://usermanuals.musicxml.com/MusicXML/Content/EL-MusicXML-group-barline.htm <https://usermanuals.musicxml.com/MusicXML/Content/EL-MusicXML-group-barline.htm>
>> 
>> best regards
>> James
>> 
>>> On 23 May 2021, at 02:43, Dylan Nicholson <WizOfAus@hotmail.com <mailto:WizOfAus@hotmail.com>> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Hope this is a suitable place to ask, just trying to figure out from the MusicXML spec how to specify that a barline in a multi-staff part should only be shown on an individual staff, rather than spanning across all staves in the part. Have tried setting the staff number but at least with the few tools I tested, it failed to have the desired effect. The spec doesn't really make it clear if "staff" is a valid property of a barline, but there doesn't seem to be any other way to specify this?
>>> Thanks
>>> Dylan
>