The Dagstuhl Core

A substantial number of workshop attendees were involved in an extensive discussion of musical features for which software support is desirable in the context of scholarly research and applications (printing, analysis, editing of virtual materials, and other activities). Some ability to interchange data among applications is also highly desired. At the present time (early 2009) two XML descriptions for music have been extensively discussed at other meetings and workshops. These are MusicXML (commercial) and the Music Encoding Initiative (MEI; non-commercial). Over continuing discussion in ensuing days, a list of ``core'' features was developed by a group including Ted Dumitrescu, Johannes Kepper, Andreas Kornstaedt, Daniel Roewenstrunk, Perry Roland, and Eleanor Selfridge-Field. Additional input was received from Craig Sapp, who has translated extensively among four of the five data representation schemes (Humdrum Kern, MuseData, SCORE, and MusicXML) compared on the ``core'' feature list. (At the present time, no software to implement MEI is available.) The representation schemes were chosen because of the extensive repositories of music that already exist in them. The list is a work-in-progress. A wiki (restricted access) has been set up at http://muwimedial.de/dagstuhl-core/. After a short phase of refinement, it will be made available more widely. The Dagstuhl Core is a means to facilitate the use of existing and creation of new polyphonic CWN corpora (1650-1935) by educating users about the possibilities and limitations of graphemic, application- independent music data formats and the quality of programs that convert between them. It provides a feature list for each format/converter containing ``Yes''/``No''/``by Extension'' with a concise description how the given feature can (not) be realised in a given format / by a given converter. Serving as a frame of reference for parties interested in using encoded music, as well as creating corpora, formats, and converters, the vast majority of Dagstuhl Core features should carry a ``Yes'' or ``by Extension'' for a music format to be considered a core format for representing music in CWN from 1650 to 1935. The emphasis of the ``core'' is intended to be less on completeness than on ``essential features'' that any representation approach intended for use in scholarly work should be able to handle. It is currently focused on European classical music of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.