WEDELMUSIC format: an XML music notation format for emerging applications

In order to satisfy the needs of the new emerging applications, the music notation formats are going to be transformed. Among the emerging applications of music, we can see: music distribution, Internet exploitation of music, cooperative editing of music, production and adoption of multimedia digital objects based on music, distance learning/tuition of music, etc. In many of these applications, the music notation model has to provide distinct mechanisms for modeling symbolic and visual aspects. The WEDELMUSIC format is presented. It is a XML compliant format that presents multimedia capabilities and includes identification, classification, symbolic, visual, versioning, printing, protection, image score, image, document, performance, video, and lyric aspects. It keeps separate visual/formatting and symbolic aspects. It can be profitably used as a format for new applications, and as a format for interchanging symbolic description of music scores. Some examples are given and the DTD of the symbolic part of WEDELMUSIC format is reported. The format is supported by a free music editor.