Re: SVG and MIDI

>From "Technical realization" section:

"The Assistant Composer now writes the specialized graphics, the default 
temporal information and the MIDI information into the score's file, using 
information taken from its input palettes. The graphics are only for human 
consumption. The Assistant Performer can easily create a 'MIDI-Score' from 
the temporal and MIDI information alone, without looking at the graphics."

I think it's important to make it clear that we don't need to physically 
write or see a score to hear it, correct?

"The chords' relative positions, default durations and duration classes will 
be part of the musical logic, but will otherwise be free of the unnecessary 
restrictions caused by standard notation's inadequate (Ptolemaic) 
time-paradigm."

Great.

"Universality: Any kind of notation can be embedded in this extended SVG 
format. I have in mind: Gregorian Chant, standard notation, ordinary 
language text, non-standard notations of any kind - even those which are 
read vertically, or are animated etc. The format can also, with a little 
work, probably be used to connect timings to areas inside scanned images."

Great.

"Navigation: Even if the MIDI information is omitted, the default 
object/event timings can still be associated with positions within 
2-dimensional graphics of any kind. Imagine a cursor following an audio or 
video recording of an ancient or 20th-century manuscript score, or being 
able to click on the graphics/image to jump to a position in a recording. 
Maybe one is learning Chinese...Navigation: Even if the MIDI information is 
omitted, the default object/event timings can still be associated with 
positions within 2-dimensional graphics of any kind. Imagine a cursor 
following an audio or video recording of an ancient or 20th-century 
manuscript score, or being able to click on the graphics/image to jump to a 
position in a recording. Maybe one is learning Chinese..."

Great.

"Annotations: Extended SVG files can be edited using programs such as 
Inkscape, without losing the non-graphic extensions. This means that text 
and graphic annotations can be added to such scores without making them 
unperformable. The annotations, which would be purely for human consumption, 
could have academic uses or be performance instructions. For example, my 
Assistant Performer knows nothing about slurs because they mean something 
too complex to be translated into MIDI instructions. The performance of a 
slur (phrasing) is not something that can be mechanically fixed. Phrasing is 
intimately related to the uniqueness of a particular performance, and has to 
be understood as part of a living performance practice tradition. I can well 
imagine adapting my old "convert to slur" FreeHand Xtra for use in 
 Inkscape."

Yes!

MIDI, "Authenticity" and MP3 files
"Moritz produces MIDI output, but the sound of a MIDI file is more or less 
undefined unless one has access to a system like the one on which it was 
created. This is especially the case in extreme examples like Study 2, which 
contain rapid sequences of control messages.
My reference synthesizer for Study 2 was the Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth 
(supplied as part of the Windows Vista Ultimate 64bit operating system), 
which I played using either Moritz' Assistant Performer or Windows Media 
Player.
The present recordings were made by balancing all the settings as well as I 
could using that system.
Other MIDI performance systems may give a completely wrong impression of the 
piece."

OK, use the hardware whenever possible and degrade to software for other 
cases then? Is it too optimistic to suppose that most computers have now at 
least minimal banks + a mini-synth?

Domenico

Received on Wednesday, 23 March 2011 19:13:21 UTC