Music 253/CS 275a Winter 2025 Syllabus

Music 253/CS 275a "Symbolic Musical Information"
Stanford University (Winter 2025).

This music-information introduction surveys symbolic frameworks and methods for a wide range of applications. Areas covered include advanced notation systems, optical music recognition, data conversion and synchronization, and the internal structure of data files. The course is preparatory for Music 254/CS 275B (Computational Musical Analysis), which focuses on projects requiring a working knowledge of notation and familiarity with sound software.

Meeting times:		Tuesday & Thursdays 1:30–2:50
Customary Location:		Braun Music Building, Room 106
Instructors:		Eleanor Selfridge-Field (esfield@stanford.edu) Craig Stuart Sapp (craig@ccrma.stanford.edu)
Office Hours:		After class meetings and by appointment.
Credits:		2–4
Grading:		Four-credits: class participation: 25%; weekly assignments: 50%; take-home final essay: 25%. Three-credit/no final essay: class attendance: 33%; weekly assignments: 67%. Two-credit/no final essay: choices negotiable (homework assignments selected in consultation with instructors).
Website:		music253.stanford.edu/music275a.stanford.edu: Overview of individual topics presented in Music 253/CS 275a, and syllabus.
Prerequisites:		Ability to read standard music notation. Knowledge of central concepts of tonal music theory (see Tutorial).
Textbook:		E. Selfridge-Field, ed., Beyond MIDI: The Handbook of Musical Codes (MIT Press, 1997). Available online by permission of the publisher.

• Course resources
• Handouts
• Links

Syllabus

See also Music 254/CS 275b Syllabus

Go to week: 1 | 2 | MIDI 3 | 4 | SCORE 5 | 6 | XML 7 | MuseData 8 | Humdrum 9 | 10

Week 1

Week	Dates	Topics
1	7 Jan 2025	Overview of music representation and course resources Lecture 01A: Musical Information or old Video version Lecture C1a: Music representation Demo: Malinowski's Music Animation Machine Assignment #1: Design your own music representation system (due next week, Thursday) Course Participation Survey
1	9 Jan 2025	Lecture 01B: Using Musical Information Lecture C1b: Rosetta stone of digital music representations (see also companion wikipage) Assignment #2: Do either the Guido Music Notation or the Humdrum encoding homework (or do both for extra credit). If doing both, then also discuss the differences and similarities between the two systems and interfaces. (due in one week)

Week 2

Week	Dates	Topics
2	14 Jan 2025	Input methods: textual input Lecture 02A: Input Methods for Music. Lab #2a: Computer keyboard Input methods in MuseScore Scores and Data Export in MuseScore
2	16 Jan 2025	Input methods: MIDI keyboard input Lecture 2B: Sound-MIDI Introduction Lab #2b: MIDI keyboard Input methods in MuseScore Assignment #3: Finish Lab 2 exercises

Week 3

Week	Dates	Topics
3	21 Jan 2025	Input methods: OMR and Data Interchange Lecture 03A: Optical Music Recognition Lecture C2: Introduction to XML Lab #3: Optical music recognition with SharpEye Assignment #4: SharpEye to MuseScore/Noteflight/Verovio Humdrum Viewer/Sibelius/Finale/Dorico/etc. Via MusicXML (Due in one week)
3	23 Jan 2025	MIDI Protocol Lecture 03B: From Sound to MIDI Input and Output Lecture C3a: MIDI protocol (extra: Hexadecimal numbers) Topic: MIDI roadmap of the byte Topic: MIDI bytes/messages (cinmidi) Topic: MIDI messages

Week 4

Week	Dates	Topics
4	28 Jan 2025	General MIDI/Standard MIDI Files Lecture C3b: Standard Midi Files Topic: Outline of the Standard MIDI File structure Topic: Variable length values Lecture 04A: MIDI Timing and Special Features Assignment #5a: MIDI file parsing homework (Due in one week)
4	30 Jan 2025	MIDI Extensions Lecture 04B: MIDI and Temperament MIDI Extensions (Pitch, Expression)] Lecture: Creating MIDI files by hand from text files binasc tool for creating MIDI files in a text editor Topic: General MIDI instruments (plus percussion key numbers on channel 10) Topic: General MIDI continuous controllers Assignment #5b: MIDI file creation (due in one week)

Week 5

Week	Dates	Topics
5	4 Feb 2025	Lesley Robertson: Performing with digital music stands. Applied MIDI MIDI notes (MIDI Plus and C++ parser & Guitar TAB to MIDI conversion) Piano rolls as musical data SUPRA: Digitizing Stanford University's Piano Roll Archive
5	6 Feb 2025	Lecture 05B: Introduction to SCORE SCORE user input code Lab: SCORE user input (slides) SCORE 5-Stage Input Reference

Week 6

Week	Dates	Topics
6	11 Feb 2025	Heinz Roggenkemper: guest lecture on Newzik, LiveScore, and the role of OMR (optical music recognition) slides SCORE music editor * Lab: Input exercises done on paper in previous session SCORE survival guide
6	13 Feb 2025	Using Score and Other Notation Software Lecture 06A: Graphical Extremes within Common Western Notation (CMN)] Lecture 06B: Non-staff and other non-common notations for music SCORE simple examples Lab: Input slightly harder SCORE examples List of useful SCORE commands Homework #6: Five SCORE user input exercises, due in one week (but best to do it before the next class)

Week 7

Week	Dates	Topics
7	18 Feb 2025	Archiving musical data Lecture 07A. Score semantics: Textures and Tracks SCORE parameters 2 SCORE parameters Lecture: SCORE parameters Score parameter examples: notes, slurs/ties (note and slur parameter sheets) Homework 7: Hard SCORE exercises: do 3 out of the 10 examples (due next Thursday): Or a page of music of your choice with Craig's approval (so he can make sure it is not too easy or too hard)
7	20 Feb 2025	Archiving musical data Lecture 07B. Data Archives MusicXML: Data markup and interchange Lecture: MusicXML and musical parameters

Week 8

Week	Dates	Topics
8	25 Feb 2025	Transposition via Base-40 Lecture 08A. Base-40 Arithmetic for Music Apps MEI: Source markup and publishing Lecture 08A. Markup Languages: MusicXML and MEI Lecture: Introduction to MEI XML homework #8 (due next Tuesday)
8	27 Feb 2025	MuseData Walter Hewlett: MuseData Lecture 07C. Musedata online resources Lecture 08B. Encoding Musical Variants Beethoven String Quartets MuseData files for the quartets muse2ps for printing the MuseData files

Week 9

Week	Dates	Topics
9	4 Mar 2025	Humdrum Lecture 09A. Introduction to Humdrum Lecture: Humdrum file format Introduction to **kern music encoding Verovio Humdrum Viewer (2019 IAML (Kraków, Poland) workshop slides for VHV) Homework: Encode examples in Humdrum using VHV editor (due this Thursday).
9	6 Mar 2025	Humdrum Analysis 1 Lecture 09B. Uses of Humdrum Lab: Humdrum Lab Humdrum homework (due next Thursday)

Week 10

Week	Dates	Topics
10	11 Mar 2025	Music as Intellectual Property Lecture 10A. Basic Concepts in Music Copyright Lecture 10B. Music as Written, Music as Heard Humdrum Analysis 2 Musical Dice Game Online implementation, command-line variant (different piece): Musical dice game
10	13 Mar 2025	Lecture 10C. Ear, Mind, or Brain? Reflections on Musical Similarity Preview: Musical Similarity Non-standard music representations in Humdrum Koto notation

General Policies and University Rules

General policies and university rules:

1. Delivery times:
   1. Assignments: by the start of the class for which they are due.
   2. Final exam: by 11 p.m. of the assigned date.
2. Honor code: We will act and expect you to act according to the Stanford Honor Code.
3. Students with disabilities: Students who may need an academic accommodation based on the impact of a disability must initiate the request with the Student Disability Resource Center (SDRC) located within the Office of Accessible Education (OAE). SDRC staff will evaluate the request with required documentation, recommend reasonable accommodations, and prepare an Accommodation Letter for faculty dated in the current quarter in which the request is being made. Students should contact the SDRC as soon as possible since timely notice is needed to coordinate accommodations. OAE phone (650) 723-1066 OAE website.
4. Students in distress: Stanford offers an abundance of resources for students dealing with problems of a personal nature.
   1. Urgent support: (650) 723-3785 CAPS website
   2. Medical Services: (650) 498-2336 Vaden Health Services
   3. Crisis hotline: (650) 725-9955
   4. Title IX questions: (650) 497-4955