Music 253/CS 275a Winter 2013 Syllabus

Music 253/CS 275a "Symbolic Musical Information"
Stanford University (Winter 2013).

This music-information course surveys symbolic frameworks and methods for a wide range of musical 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 (Music Query, Analysis, and Style Simulation), which focuses on projects requiring a working knowledge of notation and sound software.

Meeting times:		Tuesdays & Thursdays 1:15–3:05
Location:		Braun Music Building, room 128 (or entry also from room 129)
Instructors:		Eleanor Selfridge-Field (esfield@stanford.edu) Craig Stuart Sapp (craig@ccrma.stanford.edu)
Office Hours:		3:05–4:05 Wednesdays and by appointment.
Credits:		2–4
Grading:		Four-credits: class attendance: 25%; weekly assignments: 50%; take-home final: 25%. Three-credit/no final: class attendance: 33%; weekly assignments: 67%. Two-credit/no final: choices negotiable (selected homeworks).
Website:		music253.stanford.edu wiki.ccarh.org/wiki/Music 253 Overview of individual topics presented in Music 253.
Prerequisites:		Ability to read standard music notation. Knowledge of central concepts of tonal music theoory (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

Week	Dates	Topics
1	8 Jan 2013	Overview of music representation Lecture 01A: Musical Information Demo: Malinowski's Music Animation Machine Rosetta Stone of Musical Data Codes Assignment #1: Design your own music representation system (due 15 Jan 2012)
1	10 Jan 2013	Music representation and course resources Lecture 01B: Applying Musical Information Lab #1: Guido Music Notation Assignment #2: Finish Guido lab exercises at home
2	15 Jan 2013	Notation software: input methods: MIDI #1 Lecture 02A: Input for Musical Notation (1)
2	17 Jan 2013	Notation software: input methods: MIDI #2 Lecture 02B: Input for Musical Notation (2) Lab #2: MIDI keyboard Input methods in Finale Assignment #3: Finale homework (due 22 Jan 2012)
3	22 Jan 2013	Input methods: OMR and Data Interchange Lecture 03A: Optical Music Recognition Lecture: Introduction to XML Lab #3: Optical music recognition with SharpEye Assignment #4: SharpEye to Finale/MuseScore/Noteflight
3	24 Jan 2013	MIDI Protocol/General MIDI Lecture 03B: MIDI Introduction Lecture: Hexadecimal numbers Topic: MIDI roadmap of the byte Topic: MIDI bytes/messages (cinmidi) Topic: MIDI messages
4	29 Jan 2013	Standard MIDI Files Lecture 04A: From Music to MIDI Lecture: Standard MIDI Files Topic: Outline of the Standard MIDI File structure Topic: Variable length values Topic: General MIDI instruments (plus percussion key numbers on channel 10)
4	31 Jan 2013	MIDI Extensions/Wrap-up Lecture 04B: MIDI extensions and alternatives binasc tool for creating MIDI files in a text editor General MIDI continuous controllers Assignment #5: MIDI file parsing
5	5 Feb 2013	SCORE user input code Lecture 05A: Introduction to SCORE Lab: SCORE user input SCORE 5-Stage Input Reference
5	7 Feb 2013	SCORE music editor Lecture 05B. Repertories with Special Needs Lab: Input exercises done on paper in previous session
6	12 Feb 2013	SCORE simple examples Lecture 06A. Score Textures and Tracks Lab: Input slightly harder SCORE examples Homework: Finish SCORE user input 2, due 19 February 2013
6	14 Feb 2013	SCORE parameters Lecture 06B. Special Situations in Common Music Notation (CMN) Lecture: SCORE parameters Score parameter examples: notes, slurs/ties
7	19 Feb 2013	SCORE parameters 2 Lab/Homework: Hard SCORE exercises, due 28 February 2013
7	21 Feb 2013	MuseData Beethoven String Quartets Lecture 07. EsAC and MuseData: Approaches to Repurposing and Interchange MuseData files for the quartets muse2ps for printing the MuseData files
8	26 Feb 2013	MusicXML
8	28 Feb 2013	MEI 30 Short MEI encoding examples Transposition
9	5 Mar 2013	Humdrum file format
9	7 Mar 2013	Humdrum Analysis 1
10	12 Mar 2013	Humdrum Analysis 2
10	14 Mar 2013	Non-standard music representations in Humdrum
FE	21 Mar 2013	Take-home final due by 11 p.m.

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 accommdations. The OAE is located at 563 Salvatierra Walk (phone 723-1066).