MusicXML Definition

Version 2.0

Overview - What's New - Files - More Information

Overview

"Word-processing and spreadsheet programs have been sharing formats for years, so you can write in one program and share your results with people who prefer something different. Finally, the musical world has realised that it needs the same thing. Its name is MusicXML." - David Hewson, The Sunday Times, August 29, 2004

Recordare has developed MusicXML™ technology to create an Internet-friendly method of publishing musical scores, enabling musicians and music fans to get more out of their online music. MusicXML 2.0 files will soon serve the same role for interactive sheet music that MP3 files serve for recorded music.

The MusicXML format represents common Western musical notation from the 17th century onwards. It lets you distribute interactive sheet music online, and to use sheet music files with a wide variety of musical applications. The MusicXML format is open for use by anyone under a royalty-free license, and is supported by nearly 100 applications:

Map of MusicXML software support

What's New

Version 2.0 was released in June 2007. The big change is the addition of many features to make the MusicXML format better suited for distributing interactive sheet music online. This includes a compressed version of the MusicXML format that makes MusicXML files about 20 times smaller than the uncompressed version, roughly the same size as the corresponding MIDI files. The MusicXML version history summarizes the changes since version 1.0.

A W3C XML Schema (XSD) version of the MusicXML 2.0 format is currently in beta test. The XSD version of MusicXML 2.0 is a stricter definition of the MusicXML format than the DTD. Restrictions that were previously only included in the MusicXML documentation are now part of the MusicXML schema language itself. The XSD version will thus catch many more errors during validation than was possible with the DTD. This should lead to higher quality interchange software and a more reliable user experience in the future. The Dolet 4 for Finale plug-in offers registered users the option to validate MusicXML files against the MusicXML XSD starting with version 4.4.

The MusicXML alphabetical index lists each of the 95 new features in version 2.0. The index is also available as an Excel file. Each entry includes a brief description and a reference to the defining DTD file. Version 2.0 adds features to versions 1.1 and 1.0, so every valid MusicXML 1.0 and 1.1 file is also a valid MusicXML 2.0 file.

MusicXML programs are in the midst of adding MusicXML 2.0 support. Finale 2009 reads and writes MusicXML 2.0 files in both compressed and uncompressed formats. The Myriad Music Plug-In provides a web browser plug-in for MusicXML 2.0 files. Sibelius 5.1 added support for reading MusicXML 2.0 files.

Two recent MusicXML presentations are now available online:

MusicXML: Methodology and Technical Methods (November 2006)
Lessons from the Adoption of MusicXML as an Interchange Standard (December 2006)

Files

The MusicXML DTDs, tutorials, and sample files may be found on our download page, along with trials for MusicXML software such as Dolet 4 for Finale, capella, and PDFtoMusic Pro.

A MusicXML tutorial for software developers is available in both HTML and PDF format, including a MusicXML FAQ. This is the easiest starting point for learning about MusicXML.

A set of 18 musical examples is available in XML and graphic formats. These include songs for voice and piano, a song for voice and guitar tablature, an orchestral excerpt, and some instrumental music. A MusicXML 2.0 example, Scott Joplin's Elite Syncopations, is also available in several formats, including XML, musicRAIN, PDF, MIDI, MP3, and the Myriad Music Plug-in.

The different MusicXML elements, attributes, and entities are listed in an alphabetical index, also available as an Excel file. Each entry includes a brief description and a reference to the defining DTD file.

If you start doing a MusicXML implementation, you will need to refer to the actual MusicXML document type definitions (DTDs). These are distributed under the MusicXML Document Type Definition Public License 2.0. All the component DTDs are listed at the MusicXML DTD Index. Most browsers do not display DTDs directly, so you will probably want to look at the HTML versions of these files.

The two main top-level DTDs are partwise.dtd and timewise.dtd. Two XSLT stylesheets (parttime.xsl and timepart.xsl) are provided to convert between the two formats. The compressed file format is described in the container.dtd file. Multiple movements or other musical collections are represented using opus.dtd. The opus document contains XLinks to individual scores, and will evolve to include more detailed reference and musicological information. There is also a midixml.dtd for representing Standard MIDI Files in XML.

More Information

To keep updated on the progress of MusicXML technology, you may subscribe to our e-mail announcement list, our MusicXML discussion list, or both.

There are now many publications from authors all over the world describing their MusicXML experiences and evaluations, together with press coverage about Recordare and its MusicXML technology. Here are some of the more detailed papers and presentations from Recordare:

MusicXML: Methodology and Technical Methods is the most recent MusicXML overview presentation. It was given at a colloquium on Digital Media and Music Editions held at the Academy of Sciences and Literature in Mainz, Germany (November 2006).
Lessons from the Adoption of MusicXML as an Interchange Standard is a paper that analyzes the MusicXML adoption process and suggests lessons that can be applied for XML language designers in other application areas. It was presented at the XML 2006 conference in Boston. PDF versions of the full paper and presentation slides are also available (December 2006).
MusicXML in Commercial Applications appears in Music Analysis East and West. Published jointly by the Center for Computer Assisted Research in the Humanities and MIT Press, it is now available from Amazon and other bookstores (August 2006).
MusicXML: An Internet-Friendly Format for Sheet Music is available on the XML 2001 Conference Proceedings web site (December 2001).
MusicXML in Practice: Issues in Translation and Analysis was presented at the MAX 2002 conference on Musical Applications Using XML (September 2002). The slides from the conference presentation are also available in PDF format. The XQuery examples have been updated to reflect the November 15, 2002 working draft.
MusicXML for Notation and Analysis appears in The Virtual Score: Representation, Retrieval, Restoration. Published jointly by the Center for Computer Assisted Research in the Humanities and The MIT Press, it is now available from Amazon and other bookstores (September 2001).

We welcome your questions and comments about MusicXML at:

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Last updated August 2, 2008.