Keyboard Philharmonic
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For only the second time in 41 years
Posted by Jim DeLaHunt on 31 Mar 2019 | Tagged as: culture, Keyboard Philharmonic
January 1st each year is, among other things, Public Domain Day. This is the day, in most industrialised countries, when the copyright period expires on those works which became old enough in the past year. On Public Domain Day, those books, music scores, and artworks enter the public domain en masse. They are free for everyone to use and re-use without asking permission.
This year, Public Domain Day in the USA was notable. For only the second time in 41 years, works actually entered the public domain in the USA on that day. The last time this had happened was in 1998, and before that, 1977. These two 21-year droughts were the results of changes to US copyright law, first in 1976, and again in 1998. “The public domain has been frozen in time for 20 yearsâ€, quoted Smithsonian magazine. Cultural advocates celebrated how the arrival of works into the public domain enriches culture generally in the USA. But they focussed more on literature. I am interested in music scores. Continue Reading »
Labour, symbols, and free: the gate to digital-based music-making
Posted by Jim DeLaHunt on 05 Apr 2017 | Tagged as: culture, Keyboard Philharmonic
(Background: I was asked recently for a writing sample, and I took the opportunity to restate, more concisely, what I’m trying to do with Keyboard Philharmonic.)
Musicians performing classical music and opera, and teachers and students of this music, are on the cusp of a transformation from printed music scores to digital scores. This will be as significant as the shift of text communication from printed books and magazines, to web articles, blogs, emails, and tweets.
I believe a particular model is the right next step. I call it, “Labour, symbols, and freeâ€. It is a policy package for a music score transcription effort. It fills a gap in the present situation, and opens a gate to move forward. I will also describe the strategic context. Continue Reading »
Requirements for comparing digital scores
Posted by Jim DeLaHunt on 30 Jun 2016 | Tagged as: culture, Keyboard Philharmonic, meetings and conferences, music
Back in May, as part of the Music Encoding 2016 conference in Montreal, we had a discussion about comparing digital scores. Just as you can compare text files, and get a concise statement of differences, we brainstormed about requirements for comparing music scores at the notation level. This blog post is a record of that discussion.
Encoding Music at Music Encoding Conference 2016
Posted by Jim DeLaHunt on 31 May 2016 | Tagged as: Canada, Keyboard Philharmonic, meetings and conferences, music
A couple of weeks ago the Music Encoding Conference 2016 was held at McGill University, Montréal, Canada. I attended on behalf of the Keyboard Philharmonic project. I was like a kid in a candy store: so many people with so much experience in representing music notation digitally, so many interesting talks, so much friendliness. I also had the temerity to hold, despite my first-time status, a workshop on the first day of the conference: “Encoding Music at Music Encoding”, where we would follow the Keyboard Philharmonic process to encode a short score. The goal was to release it to the public domain by the end of the conference. Here is how we did.
Recruiting people, and structuring their work
Posted by Jim DeLaHunt on 30 Apr 2016 | Tagged as: culture, Keyboard Philharmonic, music
The Keyboard Philharmonic overview mentions that one focus of the project is to be “a vehicle for recruiting people and structuring their work for useful resultsâ€. There are reasons why this focus is important. Continue Reading »
A 21st century container for music scores
Posted by Jim DeLaHunt on 31 Oct 2015 | Tagged as: culture, Keyboard Philharmonic, music
A music score is an information product. The printed book is a proven, well-understood container for information products. It is also a 16th-century technology approach. In the 21st century, we have a new container for music scores: the symbolically encoded, software-accessible digital file. The exciting task of our time is to explore how to move the music score into this new container, preserving the connection to our cultural heritage and our artistic tradition of music creativity, while transcending the limitations of the 500-year-old container technology.
I see the Keyboard Philharmonic project as providing an important bridge, to move the fine musical works of the classical music and opera tradition into their new home in the 21st century.
Why revisable formats matter for our digital scores
Posted by Jim DeLaHunt on 13 Aug 2015 | Tagged as: culture, Keyboard Philharmonic, music
The Keyboard Philharmonic overview mentions “revisable, symbolic digital notation formats” for music scores. Sometimes people ask if projects like the Internet Music Score Library/Petrucci Project aren’t already putting music scores into “digital” form. Perhaps a clarification will help. Yes, the IMSLP and many other worthy projects are offering music scores in “digital” formats — but not in “revisable digital notation” formats. The difference matters. Continue Reading »
Music score pain points for the chorus
Posted by Jim DeLaHunt on 12 Apr 2015 | Tagged as: culture, Keyboard Philharmonic, music
A chorus that uses, for rehearsal and performance, the 5-century-old technology of printed music scores, will encounter pain points. Printed scores are expensive and difficult to stock and manage. Singers can find it hard to understand where in a score a director is, especially when members use different editions. Scores have mistakes to correct, details to tailor for a specific for performance, which are hard to communicate to each singer. And more. The coming public-domain digital music scores offer help for some of these pain points. Yet the printed scores have strengths, built by 5 centuries of music practice, which digital music scores will be hard put to match.
About the Keyboard Philharmonic
Posted by Jim DeLaHunt on 31 Mar 2015 | Tagged as: culture, Keyboard Philharmonic, music
The newly-founded Keyboard Philharmonic is a music charity which aims to enlist music lovers to transcribe opera and classical music scores into a revisable, shareable, digital format, and then give those digital scores away for free. One way to think of it is as a way to bring Mozart and Beethoven’s scores into the digital age. I’m passionate about it, and I’m working hard to get it started.