Re: Music Notation on the Web

Michael,

Amen to a great deal of your note here, but I do wonder about the  
extent to which compression is a real issue.

Doesn't server-side GZIP compression render bandwidth problems moot  
for text-based formats? Also, uncompressed MusicXML files are  
typically not much larger than high resolution PDFs in my experience.   
Finally, the plummeting cost of disk space doesn't seem to me like it  
would really be an issue these days.

...Joe

On Dec 13, 2010, at 1:47 PM, Michael Good wrote:

> Hi Roger,
>
> > I cannot argue the technicalities of MusicXML capabilities – all I  
> know is that in practice it’s not doing the job.  So why not?  What  
> is needed to get that job done?
>
> That's a great question. I tried to answer this before, but let me  
> go into more detail this time.
>
> Sites like CPDL and IMSLP have historically not hosted MusicXML  
> files because they are too big, which causes both disk space and  
> bandwidth problems on those sites.
>
> MusicXML 2.0 solved this problem by introduced compressed MusicXML  
> files with MIME type application/vnd.recordare.musicxml and a  
> recommended suffix of .mxl. This zip compression of XML files gets  
> MusicXML file sizes down to the same basic level as MIDI and other  
> binary file sizes.
>
> This then bumped the problem to both a software and marketing level  
> - not all products can read and write .mxl files. One of the biggest  
> gaps is that Sibelius cannot export .mxl files. To address this  
> problem, we are now building a standalone.mxl / .xml converter  
> program.
>
> We will then need to market to these sites. We might to this via en  
> masse conversions of all the files in Finale, Sibelius, capella, and  
> other formats that export MusicXML well, and then upload MusicXML  
> versions back to CPDL. CPDL already has some MusicXML files  
> available, but those are few and far between. Similar approaches can  
> be taken with other public domain music sites.
>
> That's the approach we are taking to increasing the availability of  
> public domain music in MusicXML format. Increasing the availability  
> of copyrighted music available in MusicXML format is much more  
> difficult given the business, social, and artistic issues involved.  
> Any file format like MusicXML that would meet your needs for being  
> edited would run into the same set of problems.
>
> Since Recordare is a commercial company, we have been focusing more  
> on issues related to current, copyrighted music than on the public  
> domain issue. The public domain issue is coming up often enough  
> nowadays - here and elsewhere - that it is clear we need to address  
> it soon.
>
> Getting the music displayed and played back in a standard browser,  
> rather than a plug-in, is another problem. It is dependent on the  
> audio API - hopefully including MIDI playback - as well as a  
> standard interactive graphics API with performant implementations on  
> both mobile and desktop devices.
>
> Again, the problem is not in the music notation representation  
> itself, but it software and marketing based on the representation.  
> Changing the representation will slow the process, not accelerate  
> it, unless such changes are strictly upward compatible.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Michael Good
> Recordare LLC
> www.recordare.com
>
>

... .  .    .       Joe

Joe Berkovitz
President
Noteflight LLC
84 Hamilton St, Cambridge, MA 02139
phone: +1 978 314 6271
www.noteflight.com