Where did the design of MusicXML come from?
MusicXML was based primarily on two academic music formats: • The MuseData format, developed by Walter Hewlett at the Center for Computer Assisted Research in the Humanities (CCARH), located at Stanford University • The Humdrum format, developed by David Huron, based at Ohio State University. Eleanor Selfridge-Field from CCARH edited a magnificent book called Beyond MIDI: The Handbook of Musical Codes. Studying this volume made it clear that, as we had been advised, MuseData and Humdrum were the most comprehensive starting points for the type of language we wanted to build. The first beta version of MusicXML was basically an XML updating of MuseData, with the addition of some key concepts from Humdrum. Since both formats have been used primarily for work in classical and folk music, MusicXML was extended beyond those boundaries to better support contemporary popular music.
MusicXML was based primarily on two academic music formats: • The MuseData format, developed by Walter Hewlett at the Center for Computer Assisted Research in the Humanities (CCARH), located at Stanford University • The Humdrum format, developed by David Huron, based at Ohio State University. Eleanor Selfridge-Field from CCARH edited a magnificent book called Beyond MIDI: The Handbook of Musical Codes. Studying this volume made it clear that, as we had been advised, MuseData and Humdrum were the most comprehensive starting points for the type of language we wanted to build. The first beta version of MusicXML was basically an XML updating of MuseData, with the addition of some key concepts from Humdrum. Since both formats have been used primarily for work in classical and folk music, MusicXML was extended beyond those boundaries to better support contemporary popular music. In recent releases, MusicXMLs capabilities have been greatly expanded so it can serve as a distribution format for
