GUIDO Music Notation Format ISE 575 Spring 2011 Steven Lewis and Samir Sharma

GUIDO Overview Text-based music notation system Sufficiently captures the necessary musical information contained in a score Compiles into an image of sheet music

Background Developed by Holger H. Hoos (Germany) and Keith Hamel (Canada) Named after Guido d’Arezzo – Music theorist (990 – 1050) – Perfected the staff system

How GUIDO works Notes Sticky Tags Sequences and Segments

Notes Pitch [c e g& a#] Octave [c1 c2 c3] Duration [c/2 e/4 g/8]

Sticky Tags The preceding note’s characteristic applies unless a new value is specified – Note duration, Octave register, Dynamics – Tags are formatted as \tag<> [a0/2 a c1/4 c \intens g/8 e]

Sequences and Segments Horizontal Sequences[ … ] – Linear order of notes in time – Example: a single melody, different voices – All begin from the start of the piece Vertical Segments{ … } – Groups of stacked sequences – Example: multiple staffs – All begin from the start of the piece

GUIDO Advantages Scalable complexity – Basic melodies simple to create using default options – Beam groupings can be controlled – Slurs can be positioned exactly and change shapes Sticky tags – Code is compact and non-repetitive – Music is readable in the encoded form Intelligent graphics – Accidentals and bars are automatically applied Has MIDI output

GUIDO Disadvantages Chords as a unit must have one length, shorter notes are followed by imaginary rests – Secondary sequence required for Mac Dowel half notes Sequences must all start at the beginning of the piece – Impossible to place a note into a later measure without having a series of rests before it, leading to a… Cluttered graphical output – Confusing overlay of rests – Unnecessary dynamic markings for each sequence

Example: Mac Dowell { [\staff \clef \key \meter \stemsUp \intens \slur (c#2/8 e e/4) \slur (c#2/8 e e/4) \crescBegin \slur (c#2/8 e f# a) \crescEnd \dimBegin \slur (f#/4 c#) \dimEnd \intens \slur (f#1/8 b b/4) \slur (c#2/4 g#1) \slur (f#1/8 b b/4 a/2)], [ \staff \stemsDown a/2 g# a a d e d c#], [ \staff \clef \key \meter \stemsDown \intens {a0/2, e1} {a0, d1, e} {f#0, c#1} {f#0, b, d#1} {e0, g#} {c#, g#} {e, g#} {a-1, e0}] }

Example: Schubert { [\staff \clef \key \meter \intens \stacc( \slur ( d2/4 d/8 d ) \slur ( b&1/4 b& ) ) \stacc( \slur ( a/4 a/8 a ) ) \slur ( \grace(a/16) e&2/2 ) d/4 d/8 d \slur( d g1/16 ) _/16 g/4 c2/8 \slur ( b1/16 c2 b1 c2 d c ) _/8 \stemsDown \beam( \slur( c1/8 d e ) ) ], [\staff \intens _*7/2 f1/2], [\staff \clef \key \meter \intens \stacc( b&-1/8 ) \beam( \slur( d1 {f0, b&0} d1 ) ) \stacc( d0 ) \beam( \slur( f1 {f0, b&0} f1 ) ) \stacc( c0 ) \beam( \slur( e&1 {f0, a0} e&1 ) ) \stacc( f-1 ) \beam( \slur( c1 {f0, a0} c1 ) ) \stacc( b&-1 ) \beam( d1 {f0, b&} d1 ) \stacc( e&-1 ) \beam( c1 {e0, g, b&} c1 ) \stacc ( e-1 ) \beam( c1 {e0, g, b&} c1 ) \stacc( f-1 ) \beam( \stemsUp a0 b& c1 ) ], [\staff \intens _*29/8 \stacc( f0/4. )] }

Conclusion GUIDO succeeds at storing complete musical information in readable text Composing or transcribing complex music directly into the GUIDO format is doable, although graphical input methods remain easier and faster

References Overview of GUIDO (Music 253, Stanford University) – Detailed documentation – All images created using GUIDO NoteViewer software