From Feet of Clay to the Dagstuhl Core A proposal how to provide musicologists and music theorists with data they can work with Andreas Kornstädt Center for Computer-Assisted Research in the Humanities Stanford University

Where we are What format to choose? Well-Suited for printing / analysis / parsing Lots of tools / data High quality of data Flexibility, XML / non-XML  format “competition” –No decision because users and corpus builders are confused (Paderborn 2007) –Excel, ASCII and MIDI as usual  Research plans of gold, data base of clay

Where we are Hardly any high quality translations so far with few exceptions (for example MuseData -> SCORE, SCORE -> Kern)  Hardly any improvement over the course of 12 years (“Beyond MIDI”)

Proposals so far Come up with one silver bullet format that becomes the central hub or makes everything else obsolete  Didn’t work so far and won’t work (psychology, special features)

New proposal Inspiration from Dublin Core –Core metadata features (everyone can provide more, of course) –Independent of representation  Easy translation of core metadata between different implementations

“Dagstuhl Core” Core musical features which –a format must be able to represent –a piece of translation software must preserve (A format / translator can provide more, of course) DC P&E MIDI

“Dagstuhl Core” Independent of representation -XML / spines / columns / tables / arrays -accidentals on every note or once per bar? -…

“Dagstuhl Core” Benefits Keep your favorite format Provide high-quality translators Use the strengths of other formats for a certain task then convert back to your favorite  Ends the waiting game  Helps finding gaps in existing formats and translators

Input: Tim Core features have been described before. What’s the point?

Input: Alan To include everything would be to copy the universe—impossible Be aware of what is not represented. Be explicit about what is not represented. Know about others’ representations, then yours is more likely to be good. Do test your representation against something real, preferably real music or real musical behaviour.

Status It’s difficult to learn about formats and translators from an independent viewpoint because knowledge is scattered or contains blind spots Like Patterns in Software Engineering: Categories applied to something concrete facilitate discussion  Core as feature set of reference for formats and converters  Based on heavily used formats (bottom up)  Limited to

Status Features have been selected Basic y/e/n for 4 formats Next: Images for feature clarification Footnotes for every cell Website Use as completeness indicator More formats converters