The classic reference for a history of computer music notation up until 1997 is the wonderful Beyond MIDI book edited by Eleanor Selfridge-Field. You can check it out at Amazon at:
http://www.recordare.com/xml/amazon.asp?asin=0262193949 This book was essential to the development of MusicXML, as it described the two best examples of academic prior art - the MuseData and Humdrum formats - which guided MusicXML's original development. Since it was published in 1997, it doesn't cover Sibelius, MusicXML, or recent versions of Finale. At the time, Coda asked that the ETF format not be documented in the book. Beyond MIDI's subtitle is "The Handbook of Musical Codes", and it indeed emphasizes the data formats much more than the notation programs themselves. But anyone deeply interested in how music can be represented symbolically on the computer - for notation, for MIDI, or for analysis - will be interested in this book. Henry, you might well be aware of this book already, but I'm sure it will be new (and hopefully interesting) to others on the list. Best regards, Michael Good Recordare LLC _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
