Version 3.0 update (September 2011)

Fixes:

• Corrected the definition of the frame element's unplayed attribute in the direction.mod and musicxml.xsd files to match the documentation.

Changes 2.0 to 3.0 (August 2011)

New Files:

• Added sounds.dtd file for a standard set of instrument sounds to identify musical timbre.
• Added sounds.xml file defining the initial set of 886 standard instrument sounds.
• Added to20.xsl file for transforming a MusicXML 3.0 file to a MusicXML 2.0 file.

New Elements:

• Added instrument-sound element for describing timbre for playback. The standard sounds listed in the sounds.xml file may be used.
• Added virtual-instrument, virtual-library, and virtual-name elements for specifying a specific virtual instrument sound.
• Added sounds, sound, any, solo, and ensemble elements in new sounds.dtd file.
• Added play and other-play elements for playback techniques.
• Added ipa element for International Phonetic Alphabet sounds in vocal music.
• Added mute element for mute playback techniques with different instruments.
• Added semi-pitched element for playback categories of indefinite pitch.
• Added system-dividers, left-divider, and right-divider elements for system separation marks.
• Added string-mute element for string mute on/off symbols.
• Added principal-voice element for principal and secondary voices, including Hauptstimme and Nebenstimme.
• Added percussion, glass, metal, wood, pitched, membrane, effect, timpani, beater, stick, stick-material, stick-type, stick-location, and other-percussion elements for percussion pictogram symbols.
• Added distance element for standard distance between notation elements.
• Added credit-type element for purpose behind a credit.
• Added hole, hole-closed, hole-shape, and hole-type elements for woodwind/brass fingerings and other notations.
• Added handbell element for techniques used in handbell and handchime music.
• Added notehead-text element for text inside a notehead.
• Added arrow, arrow-direction, arrow-style, and circular-arrow elements for arrows used as musical technical indications.
• Added delayed-inverted-turn element for inverted turns delayed until the end of the current note.
• Added vertical turn element for turn shape arranged vertically going from upper left to lower right.
• Added interchangeable and time-relation elements for specifying interchangeable or dual time signatures, such as 3/4 (6/8).
• Added key-accidental element for specifying accidentals in non-traditional key signatures.

New Attributes and Entities:

• Added measure attribute to the rest element.
• Added winged attribute to the repeat element.
• Added niente attribute to the wedge element.
• Added unplayed attribute to the frame element.
• Added symbol attribute to the degree-value element.
• Added dash-length and space-length attributes to the tied, slur, glissando, slide, scoop, plop, doit, falloff, wedge, bracket, dashes, and octave-shift elements.
• Added slash attribute to the turn, delayed-turn, and inverted-turn elements.
• Added approach and departure attributes to the mordent and inverted-mordent elements.
• Added time-separator and time-symbol entities for displaying time signatures.
• Added separator attribute to the time element for displaying the arrangement of beat and beat-type values.
• Added after-barline attribute to the clef element.
• Added xml:space attribute to the text-formatting entity.

Additions to Elements:

• Added comma and tick values to the breath-mark element.
• Added midi-device element to the sound element.
• Added multiple midi-device elements to the score-part element.
• Added default-x, default-y, relative-x, relative-y, and type attributes to the extend element.
• Added underline, overline, line-through, and enclosure attributes to the dynamics element.
• Added time-only attribute to the tie element.
• Added number attribute to the transpose element.
• Added optional content to the senza-misura element for specifying a symbol.
• Added print-object attributes to the notations and lyric elements.
• Added halign and valign attributes to the dynamics, coda, segno, rehearsal, metronome, accordion-registration, damp, damp-all, eyeglasses, harp-pedals, pedal, other-direction, measure-numbering, and time elements.
• Added letter-spacing and line-height attributes to the rehearsal element.
• Added id attribute to the midi-device element.

New Values and Definitions:

• Added "jianpu" value to the sign element for clefs.
• Added "square" value to the group-symbol and part-symbol elements.
• Added "square", "circle", "bracket", "triangle", and "diamond" values to the enclosure attribute for the words, credit-words. display-text, and accidental-text elements.
• Added "rectangle", "oval", "bracket", "triangle", and "diamond" values to the enclosure attribute for the rehearsal element.
• Added "1024th", "512th", and "maxima" values to the type element.
• Added 7 and 8 to number attribute values for the beam and metronome-beam elements via the beam-level entity.
• Added 7 and 8 to the values for the tremolo element.
• Added "fa up", "circle dot", "left triangle", and "rectangle" values to the notehead element.
• Added "sharp-down", "sharp-up", "natural-down", "natural-up", "flat-down", "flat-up", "triple-sharp", "triple-flat", "slash-quarter-sharp", "slash-sharp", "slash-flat", "double-slash-flat", "sharp-1", "sharp-2", "sharp-3", "sharp-5", "flat-1", "flat-2", "flat-3", "flat-4", "sori", and "koron" values to the accidental, accidental-mark, and accidental-text elements.
• Added "continue" value to the type attribute for the tied, wedge, dashes, bracket, octave-shift, and pedal elements.
• Added "before-barline" value to the location attribute for the cancel element.
• Added "note" and "dotted-note" values to the symbol attribute for the time element.

Deprecated:

• Deprecated the repeater attribute of the beam element. Use the tremolo element instead.

Version 2.0 XSD (September 2008)

• A W3C XML Schema definition (XSD) is now available for the MusicXML 2.0 partwise, timewise, and opus documents.

Version 2.0 update (July 2007)

Fixes:

• Corrected the definition of the credit element in the score.mod file so it has the same meaning but is no longer non-deterministic.

Changes 1.1 to 2.0 (June 2007)

New Files:

• Added container.dtd file for compressed MusicXML 2.0 files. Compressed MusicXML files are around 20 times smaller than uncompressed files, and can contain images, audio files, and other multimedia content.
• Added to11.xsl file for transforming a MusicXML 2.0 file to a MusicXML 1.1 file.

New Elements:

• Added image and credit-image elements for including graphics in scores.
• Added appearance element for general score graphical settings, including line-width, note-size, and other-appearance child elements.
• Added container, rootfiles, and rootfile elements in new container.dtd file.
• Added volume, pan, and elevation elements for better mixer support.
• Added solo and ensemble elements for better specification of playback sounds.
• Added metronome-note and metronome-relation elements for swing and other metrical markings, including metronome-type, metronome-dot, metronome-beam, and metronome-tuplet child elements.
• Added measure-numbering element for better specification of how measure numbers are displayed in each part.
• Added inverted-turn ornament element
• Added stress and unstress articulation elements.
• Added part-name-display, part-abbreviation-display, group-name-display, group-abbreviation-display, display-text, and accidental-text elements to allow full formatting of part and group names and abbreviations.
• Added key-octave element for more accurate display of unusual key signatures.
• Added part-symbol element for formatting control of the symbol that groups multi-staff parts.
• Added slash-type and slash-dot elements for more complete specification of beat-repeat and slash notation.
• Added accordion-registration elements for accordion registration symbols, including accordion-high, accordion-middle, and accordion-low elements.
• Added group-time element for time signatures that stretch vertically across multiple staves or parts.
• Added relation element for metadata, similar to the same element in Dublin Core.

New Attributes and Entities:

• Added page attribute to the credit element.
• Added source and type attributes to the image and credit-image elements.
• Added blank-page attribute to the print element.
• Added text-x and text-y attributes to the ending elements for positioning ending text.
• Added line-height and letter-spacing attributes and entities for text leading and spacing.
• Added line-through, underline, and overline attributes and text-decoration and number-of-lines entities for text decoration.
• Added rotation attribute and text-rotation entity for text rotation.
• Added dir attribute and text-direction entity for text direction.
• Added directive attribute and entity for horizontal alignment with start of time signature.
• Added plus-minus attribute to degree-alter element.
• Added attribute and value attributes to the supports element.
• Added sound attribute to offset element.
• Added new-page attribute to the score element in opus documents.
• Added element and position attributes to the bookmark and link elements for finer resolution.
• Added additional attribute to the clef element for cue and simultaneous clefs.
• Added text attribute to root-step, bass-step, degree-value, degree-type, and first-fret elements.
• Added location attribute to the cancel and first-fret elements.
• Added left-right entity for location attributes.
• Added yes-no-number, start-stop-single, and valign-image data type entities.
• Added text-formatting entity to bring various text formatting attributes and entities together.
• Added coda, divisions, and segno attributes to barline element for playback.
• Added document-attributes entity for use with top-level document elements.

Additions to Elements:

• Added formatting elements to many descendant elements of the harmony element.
• Added text content to the pluck, elision, and fermata elements.
• Added placement attribute to the dot element.
• Added type attribute to the tremolo element.
• Added print-object attribute to the other-notation, other-direction, harmonic, key, and clef elements.
• Added font and position attributes to the time, key, and clef elements.
• Allow multiple key and time elements in the attributes element.
• Added offset element to the sound element.
• Added part-name and part-abbreviation elements to the print element.
• Added enclosure and xml:lang attributes to the footnote element.
• Made page-height and page-width optional in the page-layout element.
• Added version attribute to the opus element.
• Made elision element optional in lyric elements with more than one text element to allow more formatting control.

New Values and Definitions:

• Added numeric percentage values to the sound element's damper-pedal, soft-pedal, and sostenuto-pedal attributes.
• Added "single" value to the type attribute of the other-notation and grouping elements.
• Added "tick" and "short" values to the bar-style element.
• Added "normal", "angled", and "square" text values to the fermata element.
• Added standard "composer", "lyricist", and "arranger" values to the type attribute for the creator element.
• Added standard "music", "words", and "arrangement" values to the type attribute for the rights element.

Deprecated:

• Deprecated the directive element. Use the direction element with the directive attribute instead.
• Deprecated the pan and elevation attributes of the sound element. Use the pan and elevation elements instead.
• Deprecated the formatting attributes for the part-name, part-abbreviation, group-name, and group-abbreviation elements. Use the part-name-display, part-abbreviation-display, group-name-display, and group-abbreviation-display elements instead.

Changes 1.0 to 1.1 (May 2005)

New Files:

• Added layout.dtd file for formatting. This includes elements for page layout, system layout, staff layout, measure layout, and scaling from tenths of staff space to millimeters.
• Added to10.xsl file for transforming a MusicXML 1.1 file to a MusicXML 1.0 file. Removed the to06c.xsl file.

New Elements:

• Added defaults element, including default layout, fonts, and lyric languages.
• Added credit element for title, composer, and other credits that appear on the first page of a score.
• Added scaling, page-layout, system-layout, staff-layout, and measure-layout elements in new layout.dtd file.
• Added barre element.
• Added harp-pedals element.
• Added scordatura element.
• Added tremolo element.
• Added pluck element.
• Added staff-size element for scaling staff line spacing relative to the defaults.

New Attributes and Entities:

• Added color attribute and entity.
• Added justify entity for expanded use throughout the MusicXML DTDs.
• Added valign and halign attributes and entities for vertical and horizontal alignment.
• Added print-style entity, grouping together entities for position, font, and color.
• Added width attribute to the measure element.
• Added chord symbol formatting attributes to the kind element.
• Added height and width attributes to the frame element.
• Added a number attribute to the key and time elements so a single part such as piano can have independent key and time signatures on each staff.
• Added print-lyric attribute, used in chord sheets that include lyrics and chords but no melody.
• Added fan attribute to the beam element.
• Added line-shape entity to the tuplet element.
• Added version attribute to the top-level score-partwise and score-timewise for easier version detection than using the DTD's public ID.
• Added a reference attribute to the level element to indicate display-only editorial markings (such as original clefs and key signatures).
• Added enclosure attribute.
• Added level-display entity, grouping different methods of editorial markings (size, parentheses, and brackets).

Additions to Elements:

• Added defaults and credit elements to the score-header entity.
• Added more formatting attributes for positioning, font, and color to elements throughout the MusicXML DTDs. Many elements that used the position entity now use the print-style entity.
• Added optional page-layout, system-layout, staff-layout, and measure-layout elements to the print element.
• Added page-number attribute to the print element.
• Added optional offset and staff elements to the harmony element.
• Added text content to the glissando and slide elements.
• Added justify entity to the lyric, part-name, part-abbreviation, group-name, and group-abbreviation elements.
• Added the bezier attributes to the tied element.
• Added an end-length attribute to the ending element.
• Added level-display entity to the accidental element.
• Added substitution attribute to the heel and toe elements.
• Added parentheses attribute to the figured-bass element.

New Values and Definitions:

• Added "inverted triangle", "arrow down", "arrow up", "slashed", and "back slashed" values to the notehead element.
• Added shape-note values "do", "re", "mi", "fa", "so", "la", and "ti" to the notehead element, corresponding to Aikin's 7-shape system.
• Added the "large" value to the symbol-size entity.
• Added "dashed" value to the bar-style element.
• Added "change" value to the pedal element's type attribute.
• Added "augmented-seventh" value to the kind element.
• Defined values for the figured bass elements.
• Elaborated and refined the definitions of the positioning attributes to make them more useful with the new 1.1 formatting features.

Deprecated:

• Deprecated the print element's staff-spacing attribute. Use the staff-layout element instead.

Version 1.0 released in January 2004