Re: ASCII Music Notation?

x-posted to rec.music.compose

Jan Nieuwenhuizen wrote:
> 
> Hi!
> 
> We were having a small discussion going in rec.music.compose on the
> subject of ascii representation of sheet music, but we seem to be
> a bit wanting for ascii artist (see below).  Maybe there are music
> enthousiasts here?
> 
> It's been suggested that the drawings below are too elaborate:
> 
>     This tries to do too much. I wouldn't expect nice clef signs in
>     ASCII notation. Just a *representation* of clefs; merely putting
>     "g clef" in front of the staff would be fine with me. The
>     important thing is that the pitches and durations are
>     understandable.
> 
> but I don't think that's the case because the clefs are not the point.
> Incidentally: `g clef' is just as wide as the elaborate symbol is, so
> that doesn't really help.  Note: as we have the aid of a full music
> typesetter, the complexity of the symbols is no issue, only size and
> feasibility (combination of symbols) are.  The problem is: you seem
> to need a height of at least 9 characters per staff, because of notes
> on and between staff lines.
> 
> Anyway, I'm very much interesed in good alternatives, maybe someone
> has something helpful to contribute; fine ascii example drawings can
> be of much use!
> 
> Greetings,
> 
> Jan.
> 
> Michael Gula <mik...@MORESPAMerols.com> wrote:
> >Since there are software developers in this forum, I thought this
> >might be a good place to discuss this idea.
> >
> >Wouldn't it be nice if someone would develop a program that can
> >easily create understandable music notation in ASCII format?
> >Guitar tab folks make ASCII tab all the time, right?
> >
> >I've seen a lot of nice ASCII art. There must be a way to
> >approximate a treble clef, bass clef, a staff, notes, stems, etc.
> >using ASCII.
> 
> I've been thinking about this, and have even made some attempts.
> We're developing a free music typesetter, GNU LilyPond (www.lilypond.org),
> which has a versatile backend.  If we would have an `ascii musical
> character set', it should not be too hard to add ascii output.
> 
> It seemed easier to imagine than to achieve, however, to create a
> workable character set.  Here's a simple example of suggestive
> ascii notation, as I would like to have it typeset by LilyPond:
> 
>    What fingering do you use? Here's is mine:
> 
>    $ echo "< c-1 e-2 g4 >" |  lilypond --simple
>       .. yields..
> 
>      4
>      2
>      1
>    -|x----------
>    -|x----------
>    -|x----------
>     |
>     |
> 
> But the problem is, lots of information is missing here, and it would
> be too hard for a typsetting program to guess what can be omitted.  If
> you want to be able to include all information in ascii, it gets very
> wide and big.  That's why I gave up, until maybe an ascii artist helps
> me further.  See:
> 
>                /\
>                | |
>           +----|-|---------------------------------------+----------------
>         / |    | |             +----+----+----+----+     |        +----+--
>        /  |----|/--------------|----|----|----|----|-----|--------|----|--
>       /   |   /|               |    |    |    |    |     |        |    |
>      |    |--/-|----b----r-----|----|----|----|----|-----|--r-----|----|--
>      |    | |  |               |    |    |    |    |     |        |    |
>      |    |-|-(@)--------------|----|----|----|----|-----|--------|----|--
>      |    |  \ |/              |   x|    |   x|    |     |        |   x|
>      |    +----|---------------|---------|---------|-----+--------|-------
>       \      o/               x|        x|        x|             x|
>        |                     ---       ---       ---            ---
>       /                        |         |         |             x|
>     -|                       -x-       -x-       -x-
>       \
>        |
>       /
>      |    +---------------|------------------------------+----------------
>      |    |  /^\          |                              |
>      |    |--o  |:--------|------------------------------|---|------------
>      |    |    /          |                              |   |
>      |    |---/----------o|------------------R-----------|---|------------
>       \   |  /                                           |   |
>        \  |-|-------b------------------------------------|--o|------------
>         \ |                                              |
>           +----------------------------------------------+----------------
> 
> I should have nicer versions of the clefs, somewhere, but I can't seem
> to find them now.  But you should get the idea, it doesn't seem to be
> useful for anything but the shortest of fragments.

I thought about this once, and I realize is isn't very easy. I'll give it a
crack at a small staff.

    Moderato
   _________________________________________________________________________\
 |:____|\_________b___/______.____.__|__________._______.---.__.____________:|
 |:____|/__4____|.____$______|____|__|__________|\__-,__|___|__|\_______..__:|
 |:___/|___4____'`____/______|____|__|__________|___/___|___|__|\___""______:|
 |:__('|)___________________@|___(|__|__#( )___@|._____@|__@|_@|____________:|
      "|                              mp                                    /
                                       
Here we have a treble clef, time signature, then the key signature is two flats;
e and b. I'm not sure how understandable that B flat is. After that, a quarter
rest, a quarter note, a half note, a bar line, then a whole note, sharp. At
which point it changes to mezzo piano. then a dotted eigth note, then an eight
rest, then two joined eigth notes. Then a sixteenth note, half rest and finally
a whole rest finishing with a repeat.
                                                                _
     Allegro                                                   /.\
  ______________________|_________|\_______|""--.---.-.___________________,-._
|:_/"\_.______,,____|___|____|____|________|____|___|__`-.__/__,-._,<|@___`-|_
|:___/_'_3____^^____|_,<|_.__|__,<|__-,__,<|____|___|____|_/=/_`-'_`"|@_____|_
|:__/____4___#____,-|_`"'____|__`"'__/___`"'__,<|__@|____|__/________|______|_
|:_/______________`-' ,='____|________________`"'_______@|___________'________
          ff       '='                             mf

Here: Bass Clef, time signature, C and F sharp. Really, that's the best I can
think of for a sharp ON a line. Half note and dotted quarter note slurred. Notes
ON lines will get a little messy and large, mabye you could add a parenthesis
onto a space note (like so (@| ) to make them same size if you like. After that,
bar line, eighth note, eigth rest, four connected eigth notes.
A whole note with a natural accidental, and a fermata. Then an upside down
quarter note chord and half note.

Well, this is the best stuff I could come up with, mabye you like it, come up
with better ideas for certain objects, whatever. I know there's probably dozens
of things I've left out, but I've covered everything I can think of at the
moment.

Here's hoping you'll find some use from these suggestions.


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