The Music Encoding Initiative (MEI)
The Music Encoding Initiative (MEI) DTD is an XML DTD for the representation and exchange of music information. It is designed to be comprehensive, that is, it provides ways to encode data from all the separate domains, i.e. logical, visual, gestural (performance), and analytical, commonly associated with music. In addition, the DTD accommodates bibliographic description that is required for archival uses. It also addresses relationships between elements, cooperative creation and editing of music markup, navigation within the music structure as well as to external multimedia entities, the inclusion of custom symbols, etc. Unlike other music representation schemes, MEI can record the scholarly textual apparatus frequently found in modern editions of music. The DTDThe latest version of the DTD is being distributed under the following license:
Copyright (c) 2001-2006 Perry Roland and the Rector and
Visitors of the University of Virginia.
Licensed under the Educational Community License version 1.0.
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The latest version of the DTD is 1.7b, dated 2006/09/01. You may need to right click on the link and save the target file(s). The complete DTD in a single file: Individual MEI DTD components:
Papers and Presentations
Books, Articles and Reports
XSLT Stylesheets for MusicXML -> MEI TransformationThe 2mei.xsl and 2mei2.xsl XSLT 2.0 stylesheets transform a time-based MusicXML file into a Music Encoding Initiative (MEI) file, therefore providing an input path from any software that supports MusicXML. Not all MusicXML constructs are converted, but enough to create a basic MEI file. Features not currently transformed are ignored. Subsequent versions of this stylesheet will handle these missing features. Since not all features are dealt with, some manual revision of the MEI file may be necessary. MEI Example FilesExamples from Beyond MIDI: The Handbook of Musical Codes. Eleanor Selfridge-Field, ed. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 1997. The MEI files were created from MusicXML files using the 2mei.xsl and 2mei2.xsl stylesheets. They are all valid against the latest version of the DTD. The postscript was generated by Music Publisher (MUP, available from Arkkra Enterprises). The MUP input was created by transforming the MEI file with an XSLT stylesheet. The stylesheet will be made available soon. Eventually, there may be software which takes MEI input and produces notation output directly; however, the current process is sufficient to demonstrate MEI's capabilities.
The following files were converted to MEI from public domain MusicXML sample files available from Recordare using the 2mei.xsl and 2mei2.xsl stylesheets. The following files were exported from SharpEye as MusicXML and converted to MEI using the 2mei.xsl and 2mei2.xsl stylesheets.
The following files are part of a test for the Online Chopin Variorum Edition (OCVE). The MEI file was derived via XSLT from a MusicXML file, which was produced by SharpEye and hand-edited by Craig Sapp of Stanford University. The MEI file was hand-edited as well in order to add some features that SharpEye didn't catch, such as pedal and tempo markings, to correct some errors, such as missing notes and incorrect phrase mark attachments, and to remedy deficiencies in the transformation process. The machine-generated MIDI file was created using Mup and the MIDI file of the complete piece was downloaded from http://www.kunstderfuge.com/mid/chopin/barcarolle_60_(c)lefeldt.mid. IMPORTANT! All these files are valid against version 1.5b. No effort has been made to make them conform to version 1.7b as yet. Version 1.5b is available at http://www.lib.virginia.edu/ digital/resndev/mei/mei15b/
NOTE: The following MEI files were created by hand using a text editor. They too are valid against version 1.5 of the MEI DTD. At some point in the not-too-distant future, filters will be written to translate existing files from formats other than MusicXML into MEI. Perhaps later, dedicated editors will be created as well.
If you'd like more information about MEI, please e-mail the project leader. |
