Abjad v.2 released

Woke up this morning to the great news that our friends Trevor Bača and Víctor Adán have released v.2 of their python-based, lilypond-powered, flexible music notation system Abjad (docs and installation instructions here). Abjad is a system for composers to build up scores from reusable, flexible elements and have precise control over notational elements. Some music21 users may have already noticed an "abj" directory in music21 and seen documentation at http://web.mit.edu/music21/doc/html/moduleAbjTranslate.html for how notes and simple streams can be translated from music21 to abjad. Since both projects use similar hierarchies including spanners and containers (Streams in music21), there is a lot of compatibility between the two. If a complete translator could be implemented (volunteers?), abjad would offer to music21 users high quality lilypond output and better tools for working with tuplets, staves with independent time signatures, and other rhythmic and layout tools that music21 does not yet have. Abjad users would gain access to music21's ability to parse many notational formats, work natively with intervals and harmonics, extensive scale collections (including Scala microtonal scales), and more. Getting these two projects closer to work more closely with each other is a win-win for everyone. Congrats to Trevor and Victor!

Nancarrow level tempo changes in music21

The newest SVN releases (pre-alpha 12) of music21 include tempo change information to/from MIDI (we've already supported tempo i/o from musicxml since previous versions and read it in from Humdrum/Kern, Noteworthy, abc, Musedata and probably others. And newest releases export it to Braille Music Notation). Here's an example of using a tempo change after each note (default = quarter note) to create a smooth change of tempo (tracing a sine wave) from 60 bpm to 600 bpm over 60 notes.


from music21 import tempo, note, stream
import math
min = 60
max = 600
period = 50
s = stream.Stream()
for i in range(100):
    scalar = (math.sin(i * (math.pi*2) / period) + 1) * .5
    n = ((max-min) * scalar) + min
    s.append(tempo.MetronomeMark(number=n))
    s.append(note.Note('g3'))
s.show('midi')



And the output:



This feature lets you create pieces with the types of precise changes of tempo that Conlon Nancarrow painstakingly created in his piano-roll compositions. We'll soon have demos to show how you can use these features to create independent tempo marks in different parts to weave independent strands of music in your works. On the analytical side, importing precise tempo marks can open up new avenues for research on performance and interpretation, comparing the tempos chosen with those marked in the score.

To use the latest (not thoroughly tested) releases of music21 via SVN, we recommend developing using Eclipse. See Using Music21's SVN version with Eclipse. Otherwise, wait a few weeks for the latest release with lots of other improvements.

Alpha 11 released (and recent updates)

I haven't done a good job keeping this blog abreast of changes to music21 lately, but there have been a ton. Here are the new features of alphas 9-11.


new in alpha 9

· IMPORTANT: corpus.parseWork() is now corpus.parse() to better match converter.parse()

· TimeSignatures’ .beatCount is now read-write. Additional partition options for MeterSequences.

· Added features to the RomanText format for specifying analyses (via Roman numerals) for pieces

· TimeSignatures can include “slow 6/8” “fast 6/8” etc. to specify if it’s a 6 or 2 beat measure.

· Better configuration options and configuration assistant

· node.py renamed to xmlnode.py – useful primarily if you’re writing a new translator for an xml-based format

· stripTies() has more options

· Changes to environment.UserSettings objects now propagate instantly (usually) so you can keep working without changing anything

· figuredBass.realizer() – new module for automatic realization of figured bass. (paper coming soon)

· text.TextExpression() class for handling most text expressions, with fonts etc. – can be positioned by quaterLength offsets to represent their occurring between beats. – displays properly in musicxml (thanks Michael Good for the help)

· bug fix: pitch.flipEnharmonic() no longer has octave problems.

· added subclasses of key.WeightKeyAnalysis for other weights such as AardenEssen and others (as discussed on this list recently)

· Key analyses routines now return a Key object with a .correlationCoefficient attribute (thanks Rachel Hall!)

· Dynamics objects can be freely positioned to take place between notes.

· plots now plot chords properly (please re-generate any old images that worked on chord data!)

· derviationChain() method and derivesFrom property on Streams will return the Stream that generated this one (via .flat, .notes, etc.) – a really useful method for Context checking.

· analysis/patel -- Tools for testing Aniruddh D. Patel's analysis theories, such as nPVI: Normalized Pairwise Variability Index and Melodic Interval Variability

· note.lyric – adding a lyric with a hyphen at the start or end will (unless overridden with applyRaw = True) automatically set it as a beginning or end syllable.

· Unicode accidentals via pitch.accidental.unicode

· MICROTONES! C~ = C-half-sharp, D` = D-half-flat. Microtone objects allow for setting any amount of cents between notes. Note that .ps now always returns a float representing the midi-note with microtonal precision. .frequency works with Microtones too!

· pitch.isTwelveTone() will say whether the note is a half-sharp, etc. or not.

· pitch.convertMicrotonesToQuarterTones() and pitch.convertQuarterTonesToMicrotones() let you decide if you want to represent C4 + 57cents as C4+57c or C~4+7c.


· harmonicFromFundamental() and harmonicAndFundamentalFromPitch() will let you get pitches representing, say the 7th harmonic of D#3 – with proper microtones! Or for spectral composers will let you find out potential fundamentals for a given pitch (with the number of cents off that this pitch is)

· Note.fullName, Duration.fullName, and Pitch.fullName gives a verbose description of the element

· Stream.recurse() will recursively find every element in the stream. What stream that element is in is set as .activeSite – this is different from .flat or .semiflat in that the .offset is still relative to the element’s container. recurse(streamsOnly = True) is a good way to only get substreams.

· chord.fromForteClass() will give you a chord (including “C4”) that matches the forteclass

· chord.fromIntervalVector() does the same thing if you have an interval vector. If it’s a Z-related chord, the first form of the chord is returned.

· chord.getZRelation() will return the other Z-related form of a chord.

· REPEATS! repeat.py has Repeat marks for dal segno, da capo, 1st 2nd (3rd 4th nth) endings, etc. all of which play back properly on .show. stream.expandRepeats() will expand repeats. (big plus on abc import)

· instrument.instrumentFromMidiProgram() gives a full-fledged music21 object given a midi program (0-127)

· stream.Transpose() is now recursive.

· better Mac installation docs.



new in apha 10

· Incompatible change: stream.notes now does not return rests; just notes and chords. Use stream.notesAndRests for the old functionality.

· improvements to Scale including new documentations to be presented at ICMC next month (links coming soon)

· FEATURE EXTRACTION: 60% of jSymbolic features and many native features implemented in the features modules. (paper to be presented soon – stay tuned!)

· Better docs for 64-bit windows and all tests pass on 64-bit systems.

· Expansions of ornaments – see expressions.realizeOrnaments()

· corpus includes Mozart and Haydn string quartets and more folk airs. (see acknowledgements for thanks)

· search.py – rhythmic (and future melodic) search module with wildcards (first version)

· musedata stage1 files are now supported

· Scala scales – scales that represent potentially microtonal scales from scala format. Music21 can now read any file in .scl format!

· Repeats are correctly translated in/out of musicxml

· Augmented 6th classification in chord.

Newest updates in alpha 11:

· Huge performance boost on stream manipulation – you’ll notice it just from using it.

· Repeat brackets display properly

· Improved abc conversion of pickup measures and repeats.

· Figured basses correctly handle resolutions of augmented 6ths and many other chords.

· Bug fixes on some accidental display output.

· transparent caching of streams (i.e., stream.flat will be faster the second call if the underlying stream hasn’t been changed)

· Empty voices (often outputted by Finale) are silently removed when converting from musicxml.

· Automatic correct MIDI channel distribution for instruments AND MICROTONAL PITCHBENDS! Your 19-tone piano trio should playback properly now (at least on the default synths on Mac and PC).

· medren – convertToHouseStyle and subroutines will change the default style for printing music to better reflect some editor’s ideas of proper representation of Renaissance music.

· makeChords – bug fix on overlapping rests.

· TimeSignatures and KeySignatures are imported properly from conductor tracks in midi import.

· ConcreteScale(pitches = ‘[pitchList’]) will now create a scale from the given pitches. Useful for treating a chord as an infinite scale of notes.

· tuning = ScalaScale(‘py12.scl’); tuning.tune(score) – will retune a score to a given temperament (with playback).

· Tempo import and export from music21 to musicxml

· additional corpus items (including incipits of 14th c. Virelais)

· most modules are now more unicode compliant.



Newest (super-beta features)

· Preliminary conversion of Noteworthy composer .nwctxt files (input only)

· Very preliminary output into Braille Music notation

· Noteheads are properly output from music21 (but not converted in yet).



And of course new demos, docs, and examples.

Check it all out at http://web.mit.edu/music21/