As a composer and computer programmer I'm currently working on a real-time music notation system for networked music performances that can also display (microtonal) scores (see http://www.quintet.net),
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OK. The jpeg is a bit low-resolution, but I can see sharp signs written
with a single vertical stroke, and others written with an upward or
downward arrow. How many symbols are needed in all? Presumably
seven sharps from +1/8 to +7/8 and the corresponding seven flats?
No, actually, the font I use, Finale's Engraver Extras Character Set, only has 6 sharps and 6 flats, from -6/8 to +6/8, one could even do with only -5/8 to + 5/8.
After doing some research into music formats, I found that the abc music file format is probably the easiest to implement.
Have you looked at MusicXML? <http://www.recordare.com> It's a much more complete notation system than abc in many respects. It is, however, much more verbose than abc, and is very hard to read and write by hand, so it is mainly used as a communication format between high-end notation programs like Finale and Sibelius. It does offer support for microtonal accidentals.
The parsing of xml files seems more difficult, and since I'm just planning to use generic MAX objects (instead of writing my own) to do the parsing, the abc format seems more appropriate for the type of work I'm intending to do. I was always looking for a simple text-based music format that would allow microtonal notation.
In my work, I keep the seven diatonic steps and use eighth-tone accidentals to indicate whether the notes are flat or sharp (see attachment).
As to abc, it would be sufficient for me to add more symbols to the repertoire of accidentals which, at this point, only includes carrots and underscores (which, IMHO, is too limited to notate ethnic tunes or contemporary music).
I could, of course, just define my own accidentals, but it would nice to maintain a certain amount of compatibility.
In abc the capital letters H..Z are reserved for user-defined purposes.
Software which supported microtonal accidentals could make use of these.
Now, what about some other ascii 128-255 characters? Are they supported by abc?
I understand that MIDI playback is a completely different issue. In the
past, I would use several MIDI channels to accomplish polyphonic
microtonal playback.
I've found MIDI a little unsatisfactory for the related problem of music in non-equally tempered intonations. Although the MIDI file standard allows for pitch bend, it does not seem to define the absolute amount of pitch change which corresponds to the numbers, and synthesisers vary in their interpretation of it. I find that Apple's Quicktime Music Architecture is better in this respect. (It may be that the MIDI standard has been revised in this respect since I last looked though.)
I absolutely agree with you, and that's why I use my own sampler which works with MIDI-cents instead of MIDI key # (a middle-c quarter-note sharp is 6025 MIDI cents; i.e. key number * 100 + deviation in cents).
Regards,
Georg Hajdu
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