Full papers

G. Zoia, R. Zhou, M. Mattavelli "MPEG Audio Coding and XML: samples, models, descriptors"
ABSTRACT
The different MPEG standards are well-known for their media compression capabilities. Starting with MPEG-4, the goal of the standardization activity has also included media representation, indexation and retrieval. MPEG-4 joins advanced compression technologies with high-level media representations such as synthesized content and scene descriptions. MPEG-7 defines standard media descriptors and the way in which these descriptors can be compressed if desired, handled and extended in user defined description schemes. In this paper first the main audio-related features of the last MPEG standards, which go well beyond simple compression, are briefly reviewed. Then some examples of applications are developed showing how XML can be profitably used in conjunction with MPEG-4 and MPEG-7 schemes in the field of musical applications.
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G. Tremblay, F. Champagne "Automatic marking of musical dictations by applying the edit distance algorithm on a symbolic music representation"
ABSTRACT
A key practice of basic musical training is the use of musical dictations for ear training and training in music writing. Marking such dictations for large groups of students can be a lot of work. In this paper, we present a tool that can help automate the marking of musical dictations. The edit distance, which computes a similarity metric between two strings, has been used in various areas such as string/text analysis, protein/genome matching in biocomputing, and musical applications, for example, music retrieval or musicological analysis. The tool we present can be considered an application of the edit distance to the marking of musical dictations. Computing an edit distance on musical scores requires using an appropriate symbolic representation. We use MusicXML, an XML application for standard Western music notation. Given an appropriate Document Type Definition for MusicXML, existing Java tools can be used to obtain a MusicXML parser. Such a parser, given appropriate input files, then generates an intermediate form (DOM object) on which analyses and transformations are performed in order to compute the edit distance. In turn, the edit distance is used to give a mark as well as identify some of the key errors.
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J. Steyn "Framework for a music markup language"
ABSTRACT
Objects and processes of music that would be marked with a markup language need to be demarcated before a markup language can be designed. This paper investigates issues to be considered for the design of an XML-based general music markup language. Most present efforts focus on CWN (Common Western Notation), yet that system addresses only a fraction of the domain of music. It is argued that a general music markup language should consider more than just CWN. A framework for such a comprehensive general music markup language is proposed. Such a general markup language should consist of modules that could be appended to core modules on a needs basis.
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D. L. Baggi "A Proposal for a Regular Grammar To Parse Jazz Chords Notation"
ABSTRACT
A piece of improvised Jazz is identified by its harmonic structure of changes, placed in the harmonic grid. For each chord, or change, a particular notation is used which is well known by Jazz musicians, and appears also in other contexts, such as guitar charts. While there are minor differences and inconsistencies in this notation, the meaning is always clear to practitioner of the art. Purpose of this work is to propose a simple grammar, or standard, which, while formalizing the notation, does not impose constraints, allows extension and easy recognition of unknown symbols, new symbol combinations and definitions.
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M. Lepper "Modeling Music using XML - Some Basic Consideration -"
ABSTRACT
The paper tries to give basic outline of a holistic and analytic approach to capture all ”thinkable“ kinds of music in a generic and aspect-oriented XML-based architecture.
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G. Haus, M. Longari "Towards a Symbolic/Time-Based Music language based on XML"
ABSTRACT
The representation of Symbolic Music Information is the fundamental element of Music Information Processing. Among the several approaches developed in history the markupped one seems to be the most promising. Starting from SMDL, some XML proposals are briefly analyzed. We present our approach of layered representation of Symbolic Music Information based on the space-time organization of events. Our model splits music information in layers of representation and takes the symbolic one as the gravity center. Moreover, the symbolic layer contains a space-time structure by means of which all other layers are brought together. Then we discuss other XML standard that can be usefully related to the XML representation of music information, such as security and vector graphics standards. Lastly, we deal with some open problems in the field of music processing that might be of interest for our view of symbolic representation.
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M. Good "MusicXML in Practice: Issues in Translation and Analysis"
ABSTRACT
Since its introduction in 2000, MusicXML has become the most quickly adopted symbolic music interchange format since MIDI, with support by market and technology leaders in both music notation and music scanning. This paper introduces the key design concepts behind MusicXML, discusses some of the translation issues that have emerged in current commercial applications, and introduces the use of MusicXML together with XML Query for music analysis and information retrieval applications.
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P. Roland "The Music Encoding Initiative (MEI)"
ABSTRACT
This paper draws parallels between the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) and the proposed Music Encoding Initiative (MEI), reviews existing design principles for music representations, and describes an eXtensible Markup Language (XML) document type definition (DTD) for modeling music notation which attempts to incorporate those principles.
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Demo papers

G.C.S. Frederico "Actos: A Peer-to-Peer Application for the Retrieval of Encoded Music"
ABSTRACT
This article describes Actos, a Peer-to-Peer application developed in Java that uses the JXTA open platform. Actos uses XML-based ChordML for the symbolic representation of music including chords, lyrics and metainformation. It employs XML-based ChordQL to perform chord sequence queries.
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M. Longari "A case study: Prepared-Piano Notation in XML"
ABSTRACT
In this paper we want to show how easy it is to use the XML language to extend music notation with new features, and how to utilize them for the prepared-piano notation.
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