Music21j: An Interactive Framework for Musical Analysis
Copyright ©2013-18, Michael Scott Cuthbert and cuthbertLab, some rights reserved.
Music21j is a Javascript reinterpretation of the Music21 Python package, a toolkit for computer-aided musicology, now with intuitive HTML/Javascript interfaces. Some of the things music21j offers are:
- The ability to visualize and hear changes in Streams quickly (using Vexflow and MIDI.js)
- Connections (via Web Midi or JazzSoft plugin) to MIDI devices.
- Music theory and analysis modules at the level of music21 ca. 2012
- A repository of modules such as metronomes, keyboards, and automatic transcribers.
Though it does not have all the power of Music21 Python, music21j can help with a number of research problems in music history and theory. The introduction to the Python package will say more about it (it's better documented). The "namespaces" tab above will give introductions to some of the features of music21j. At this point we're focusing on documenting usage; developer docs will come later.
Music21j requires your users to have a relatively recent web browser -- the project
targets browsers no more than two years old.
Safari 9+, Chrome since 2015 (v.32+), Edge 14+, or Firefox since 2014 (v. 26+).
Internet Explorer 11+ is currently supported, though timing of playback can be a bit off, but
support for it will be removed soon. Microsoft Edge is the only major desktop browser for which
there is no support for MIDI devices.
This README appears in both the GitHub home page and the documentation home page; to make the following links work, go to the documentation page at http://web.mit.edu/music21/music21j/doc/ .
Begin at the {@link music21} namespace (click the link or use the menu above), or start with a specific one such as {@link music21.note} or {@link music21.stream} or a Class such as {@link music21.note.Note} or {@link music21.stream.Stream}.
(Ignore "Modules" they're not useful and duplicate the namespace pages).
Install by downloading a copy of the music21 code to your own webserver.
If you have git installed, you can use (on Mac/Unix):
% cd ~/git
% git clone https://github.com/cuthbertLab/music21j.git
% cd music21j
% ./updateGit
% npm installif the last line (npm install) doesn't work, download the
latest version of node.js first from https://nodejs.org/en/download/
and then run sudo npm install -g grunt.
A guide to installing music21j on Windows would be appreciated.
The files in music21j are best viewed by running your own
webserver (rather than using file:///... links). We've
included a small script to start you up:
% cd ~/git/music21j
% grunt
% python start_python_server.pyThen navigate to http://localhost:8000/testHTML/ for some demos.
To use music21j in your own page, place in a html page like this (this assumes that you're using the python server above).
<html>
<head>
<script data-main="/src/music21" src="/ext/require/require.js">
</script>
<script>
require(['music21'], function () {
// your code goes here. For instance...
var n = new music21.note.Note("F#");
var s = new music21.stream.Stream();
s.append(n);
s.appendNewCanvas();
});
</script>
</head>
<body></body>
</html>0.9.0 alpha
Music21j is released under the BSD 3-Clause License. Essentially you can do with it what you want so long as you leave in my copyright statements and do not represent that I endorse your product.
Or you can choose to use the GNU Lesser Public License if for some reason that suits your project better.
Thanks to the following packages (among others) for making music21j possible:
- Vexflow - music notation in HTML5
- MIDI.js - audio processing of MIDI
- Jazzsoft - plug-in for accessing MIDI in the browser in the absence of WebMIDI Api.
- require.js - method for loading multiple modules in the browser and managing dependencies.
- jQuery - easy manipulation of HTML DOM.
- qUnit - testing framework
- jsdoc - makes this documentation possible
Music21j in the Music and Theater Arts section at MIT. The Python version of music21 was supported by grants from the Seaver Institute and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Before building, every once in a while run (in the music21j directory)
npm-check-updates
and if it looks like something to update, run
npm-check-updates --upgradeAll
npm update
Build documentation with:
grunt jsdoc
The template is specified in jsdoc-template/jsdoc.conf.json