MusicXML™ Version History

DTD and XSD changes, most recent first

Version 2.0 XSD (September 11, 2008)

A W3C XML Schema definition (XSD) is now available for the MusicXML 2.0 partwise, timewise, and opus documents.

Version 2.0 update (July 10, 2007)

Fixes:

Corrected the definition of the credit element in the score.mod file so it has the same meaning but is no longer non-deterministic.

Changes 1.1 to 2.0 (June 18, 2007)

New Files:

Added container.dtd file for compressed MusicXML 2.0 files. Compressed MusicXML files are around 20 times smaller than uncompressed files, and can contain images, audio files, and other multimedia content.
Added to11.xsl file for transforming a MusicXML 2.0 file to a MusicXML 1.1 file.

New Elements:

Added image and credit-image elements for including graphics in scores.
Added appearance element for general score graphical settings, including line-width, note-size, and other-appearance child elements.
Added container, rootfiles, and rootfile elements in new container.dtd file.
Added volume, pan, and elevation elements for better mixer support.
Added solo and ensemble elements for better specification of playback sounds.
Added metronome-note and metronome-relation elements for swing and other metrical markings, including metronome-type, metronome-dot, metronome-beam, and metronome-tuplet child elements.
Added measure-numbering element for better specification of how measure numbers are displayed in each part.
Added inverted-turn ornament element
Added stress and unstress articulation elements.
Added part-name-display, part-abbreviation-display, group-name-display, group-abbreviation-display, display-text, and accidental-text elements to allow full formatting of part and group names and abbreviations.
Added key-octave element for more accurate display of unusual key signatures.
Added part-symbol element for formatting control of the symbol that groups multi-staff parts.
Added slash-type and slash-dot elements for more complete specification of beat-repeat and slash notation.
Added accordion-registration elements for accordion registration symbols, including accordion-high, accordion-middle, and accordion-low elements.
Added group-time element for time signatures that stretch vertically across multiple staves or parts.
Added relation element for metadata, similar to the same element in Dublin Core.

New Attributes and Entities:

Added page attribute to the credit element.
Added source and type attributes to the image and credit-image elements.
Added blank-page attribute to the print element.
Added text-x and text-y attributes to the ending elements for positioning ending text.
Added line-height and letter-spacing attributes and entities for text leading and spacing.
Added line-through, underline, and overline attributes and text-decoration and number-of-lines entities for text decoration.
Added rotation attribute and text-rotation entity for text rotation.
Added dir attribute and text-direction entity for text direction.
Added directive attribute and entity for horizontal alignment with start of time signature.
Added plus-minus attribute to degree-alter element.
Added attribute and value attributes to the supports element.
Added sound attribute to offset element.
Added new-page attribute to the score element in opus documents.
Added element and position attributes to the bookmark and link elements for finer resolution.
Added additional attribute to the clef element for cue and simultaneous clefs.
Added text attribute to root-step, bass-step, degree-value, degree-type, and first-fret elements.
Added location attribute to the cancel and first-fret elements.
Added left-right entity for location attributes.
Added yes-no-number, start-stop-single, and valign-image data type entities.
Added text-formatting entity to bring various text formatting attributes and entities together.
Added coda, divisions, and segno attributes to barline element for playback.
Added document-attributes entity for use with top-level document elements.

Additions to Elements:

Added formatting elements to many descendant elements of the harmony element.
Added text content to the pluck, elision, and fermata elements.
Added placement attribute to the dot element.
Added type attribute to the tremolo element.
Added print-object attribute to the other-notation, other-direction, harmonic, key, and clef elements.
Added font and position attributes to the time, key, and clef elements.
Allow multiple key and time elements in the attributes element.
Added offset element to the sound element.
Added part-name and part-abbreviation elements to the print element.
Added enclosure and xml:lang attributes to the footnote element.
Made page-height and page-width optional in the page-layout element.
Added version attribute to the opus element.
Made elision element optional in lyric elements with more than one text element to allow more formatting control.

New Values and Definitions:

Added numeric percentage values to the sound element's damper-pedal, soft-pedal, and sostenuto-pedal attributes.
Added "single" value to the type attribute of the other-notation and grouping elements.
Added "tick" and "short" values to the bar-style element.
Added "normal", "angled", and "square" text values to the fermata element.
Added standard "composer", "lyricist", and "arranger" values to the type attribute for the creator element.
Added standard "music", "words", and "arrangement" values to the type attribute for the rights element.

Deprecated:

Deprecated the directive element. Use the direction element with the directive attribute instead.
Deprecated the pan and elevation attributes of the sound element. Use the pan and elevation elements instead.
Deprecated the formatting attributes for the part-name, part-abbreviation, group-name, and group-abbreviation elements. Use the part-name-display, part-abbreviation-display, group-name-display, and group-abbreviation-display elements instead.

Changes 1.0 to 1.1 (May 20, 2005)

New Files:

Added layout.dtd file for formatting. This includes elements for page layout, system layout, staff layout, measure layout, and scaling from tenths of staff space to millimeters.
Added to10.xsl file for transforming a MusicXML 1.1 file to a MusicXML 1.0 file. Removed the to06c.xsl file.

New Elements:

Added defaults element, including default layout, fonts, and lyric languages.
Added credit element for title, composer, and other credits that appear on the first page of a score.
Added scaling, page-layout, system-layout, staff-layout, and measure-layout elements in new layout.dtd file.
Added barre element.
Added harp-pedals element.
Added scordatura element.
Added tremolo element.
Added pluck element.
Added staff-size element for scaling staff line spacing relative to the defaults.

New Attributes and Entities:

Added color attribute and entity.
Added justify entity for expanded use throughout the MusicXML DTDs.
Added valign and halign attributes and entities for vertical and horizontal alignment.
Added print-style entity, grouping together entities for position, font, and color.
Added width attribute to the measure element.
Added chord symbol formatting attributes to the kind element.
Added height and width attributes to the frame element.
Added a number attribute to the key and time elements so a single part such as piano can have independent key and time signatures on each staff.
Added print-lyric attribute, used in chord sheets that include lyrics and chords but no melody.
Added fan attribute to the beam element.
Added line-shape entity to the tuplet element.
Added version attribute to the top-level score-partwise and score-timewise for easier version detection than using the DTD's public ID.
Added a reference attribute to the level element to indicate display-only editorial markings (such as original clefs and key signatures).
Added enclosure attribute.
Added level-display entity, grouping different methods of editorial markings (size, parentheses, and brackets).

Additions to Elements:

Added defaults and credit elements to the score-header entity.
Added more formatting attributes for positioning, font, and color to elements throughout the MusicXML DTDs. Many elements that used the position entity now use the print-style entity.
Added optional page-layout, system-layout, staff-layout, and measure-layout elements to the print element.
Added page-number attribute to the print element.
Added optional offset and staff elements to the harmony element.
Added text content to the glissando and slide elements.
Added justify entity to the lyric, part-name, part-abbreviation, group-name, and group-abbreviation elements.
Added the bezier attributes to the tied element.
Added an end-length attribute to the ending element.
Added level-display entity to the accidental element.
Added substitution attribute to the heel and toe elements.
Added parentheses attribute to the figured-bass element.

New Values and Definitions:

Added "inverted triangle", "arrow down", "arrow up", "slashed", and "back slashed" values to the notehead element.
Added shape-note values "do", "re", "mi", "fa", "so", "la", and "ti" to the notehead element, corresponding to Aikin's 7-shape system.
Added the "large" value to the symbol-size entity.
Added "dashed" value to the bar-style element.
Added "change" value to the pedal element's type attribute.
Added "augmented-seventh" value to the kind element.
Defined values for the figured bass elements.
Elaborated and refined the definitions of the positioning attributes to make them more useful with the new 1.1 formatting features.

Deprecated:

Deprecated the print element's staff-spacing attribute. Use the staff-layout element instead.

Version 1.0 released on January 13, 2004

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Last updated September 11, 2008.