Date: Thu, 28 Aug 2008 14:59:40 +0200
From: Jacques Steyn <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
CALL FOR CHAPTER PROPOSALS
Proposal Submission Deadline: 30 September 2008
Structuring Music through Markup Language:
Designs and Architectures
A book edited by Jacques Steyn (Monash University)
INTRODUCTION
In a nutshell, this book is about describing
music systems using markup languages,
particularly XML.
Questions about the nature of music have been
asked from different perspectives: from the
point of view of Systematic Musicology, or from
the point of view of Cultural Musicology.
Systematic Musicology, or Scientific Musicology,
investigates music from the perspective of the
physics of sound, acoustics, cognitive sciences,
physiology, neurosciences, computing and
technology. Systematic Musicology focuses on
music in general. Cultural Musicology focuses on
hermeneutic, phenomenological and mystic
interpretations of music. Music Informatics and
computer technology provide a different
perspective on the nature of music than offered
by intellectual paradigms of earlier eras. Music
Informatics focuses on the information structure
of music. Developing an XML-based language for
music, that needs to result in practically
working systems, requires both an
epistemological and ontological description of
music. In this context, Music Informatics brings
together Systematic Musicology and Cultural
Musicology, two approaches which lacked
constructive discussion in the past.
In the past, most approaches to music from a
computing perspective have focused on using the
computer as a tool for performance, archiving,
and recording. The World Wide Web and
particularly markup languages, such as XML,
offer a whole new set of tools not only for
practical implementations, but also for a new
investigation into the theory of music. The
rigour of an XML language serves as a conceptual
tool to ask penetrating questions about the
nature of music. This book investigates music
from both a systematic and cultural
musicological point of view, and the effect of
such a view on the design of a markup language
of music.
A general and universal approach to music is a
high level abstraction from which cultural
variations derive. To make possible the
universal exchange of different cultural
expressions of music by means of computing
technologies, this high level abstraction needs
to be described along ontological lines. The
outcome of such an investigation provides a
framework within which to design and develop an
XML-based language that makes translation
possible between different cultural music
systems. Such an approach should also assist in
the development of a culture-neutral descriptive
markup language that could be used to express
symbolic music representation that is not biased
toward Common Western Music Notation. Several
XML-based languages for music are available.
Most focus on Common Western Music Notation,
which is only one particular cultural
manifestation of music, and more specifically
only one particular writing system of music.
This book takes the physics of music and
acoustics as point of departure for the
development of an XML-based music markup
language, rather than Common Western Music
Notation, which is regarded merely as a specific
writing system for a specific cultural
expression of music. Yet, while developing basic
music concepts on physics, the cultural aspect
is factored into the design process.
OBJECTIVE OF BOOK
This book will be the first publication in the
field of Music Informatics and will provide a
framework for the design and development of an
XML-based general music markup language.
Designing an XML-based language depends on
ontological questions, which in turn depend on
the philosophical paradigm of how music is
defined an epistemological question. The
approach followed in this book is an attempt to
combine the highly technical matter of an
XML-based language for computing with
philosophical musicological issues. Systematic
Musicology is often positivistic, while cultural
musicology is often hermeneutic,
phenomenological and mystic. This book attempts
to bridge the gap by using philosophical
concepts for the design of a computer markup
language.
The themes to be addressed in this book will be
of value to scholarly theory as well as music
application developers. The Symbolic Music
Representation (SMR) initiative provided input
into an ISO/MPEG extension for MPEG4 for music
representation. Although this initiative did
address cross-cultural music notations, it was
on a very high level, and lacks details for
implementation. That initiative also only
focused on written music, and did not touch on
the multitude of general music concepts that are
also important for the description of music to
be used in computer use for music. This limited
scope needs to be extended.
One particular outcome of this book will be to
provide an understanding of music in general, on
ontologies of music that may be used to develop
XML-based languages for music. There is
currently no book addressing this.
TARGET AUDIENCE
The target audience will be both musicologists
and developers of music for computers as well as
those interested in Music Informatics. For
scholars the value will be initiating debate
between Systematic Musicology and Cultural
Musicology, while for application builders the
value will be a practical framework of music
ontology that could be used as basis to develop
products. This should enable any web builder
(from hobbyists to software corporations) to
build music applications within the context of
the Web.
RECOMMENDED TOPICS
You are invited to contribute a chapter on one
(or more) of the following themes:
Defining music
The physics of music
The ontology of music
The nature of music: duration, frequency
Cultural music systems eg. tuning systems, scales, etc.
Orthographic music systems - characteristics
Common Western Music Notation: brief history, basic concepts and purpose
Descriptive music and computers eg. how to
handle the intrinsic events and objects of
music, as oppose to the extrinsic aspects
currently handled by applications
Mapping ontology to a markup language requirements, guidelines, principles
A general, universal music markup language
The way forward
Appendix: Present XML-based music applications.
* Origin of the application language history
(conception, first releases, roleplayers, etc)
* Purpose of the language the music domain
addressed (eg. CWMN, Multimedia, Network, etc)
* Particular approach followed mapping music to
XML the ontological model (why did you decide
on the markup categories, what methodologies did
you use, etc)
You are most welcome to submit other possible themes for our consideration.
Contributions will be double-blind peer reviewed.
HOW TO SUBMIT
To submit your chapter proposal, please use the web form at:
http://www.musicmarkup.info/book
WEB ADDRESS
http://www.musicmarkup.info/book
DEADLINES
30 September 2008 Proposal submissions
30 October 2008 Proposal acceptance/rejection notification to authors
28 February 2009 Chapter submission deadline
30 April 2009 Review results to authors
30 May 2009 Revised chapters due from authors
31 July 2009 Final acceptance/rejection
PUBLISHER
This book is scheduled to be published by IGI
Global <http://www.igi-global.com> under their
Information Science Reference imprint in 2010.
If you have any questions or concerns, please do
not hesitate to contact me. We appreciate your
consideration of this invitation and hope to
hear from you soon!
Best wishes,
Jacques Steyn (PhD)
School of Information Technology
Monash South Africa
+27-11-950-4132 Phone
+27-11-950-4033 Fax
jacquezzteyn Skype
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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