3 GNU Music project - manifesto
7 Random ranting about the GNU Music project
11 Provide the users with free software for:
24 Music publishers make lots of money out of selling which sheet music
25 essentially free (composed by people long dead). Publishers have two
26 arguments for doing this: high prices are there to guarantee diversity
27 (keeping lots of stock is expensive), and to encourage new work being
30 LilyPond addresses the first issue: storing mudelas takes up almost no
31 space at all. Other systems should address the other issue:
32 encouraging laymen to take up composing, in the same way that GNU
33 tools have created a whole new generation of programmers.
36 The public deserves free non-copyrighted music.
38 The public deserves free tools for composing and printing
47 (cf Emacs), from engraving point of view
51 from software point of view: like all GNU software, it
52 should have no limits, be fast, etc.
57 Printed music has a lot of styles, and special symbols. It may be
58 unfeasible to provide and maintain lots of code that is hardwired
59 into the system. The tools should be extensible/programmable like
64 That is, for technical users (that can read a
65 manual). The learning curve should be as easy as possible but not at
66 the expense of comfort of use.
70 =head1 TASKS (LONGTERM)
74 =item A typesetting engine.
76 A system with rules on how to set properties of items to be printed
77 (up/down directions, breaking, etc) LilyPond provides one, but it is
78 not yet suited to interactive typesetting
80 =item A display engine
82 which can display clear notewriting in (say) an X-window
84 Gsharp is there, but far from finished. Ideally the system should
85 cooperate with the typesetting engine
87 =item An ASCII language
89 In development, LilyPond has a language. See over there for goals.
90 Having an ASCII format which enables urtext, and easy sharing (via
91 mail and news forums) encourages cooperation and exchange of music.
93 =item A printing engine
95 Maybe to be merged with the display system.
99 The natural way to enter composed music is singing or playing it. The
100 GMP should have module which can take keyboard input or microphone
101 input and convert it to computer data. (the second one would be difficult)
105 (have no clue about this)
107 =item A scanning system
109 Having a system which can produce mudela from printed scores, greatly
110 simplifies creating a collection of music
112 =item A music-understanding system
114 (difficult) A system to generate accompaniments, figured bass,
115 automatic accompaniment, etc.
117 =item an internet archive of free music
119 The complete works by Bach, Beethoven, and any other ancient composer
120 should be electronically retrievable. This might be a separate
121 project: the Free Music Project.
131 A noninteractive typesetter, suited for batch jobs, and
132 typesetting existing music. This would couple the ASCII language, the
133 printing engine and the typesetting engine
137 A GUI for composing. This would combine the display engine, the
138 input system, the typesetting engine
142 The typesetting system has a complexity comparable to TeX's, the GUI
143 would be comparable to LyX (?) with additional complexity in
146 =head1 TASKS (SHORT TERM)
152 gather moderate number of test users and hackers
164 Think about interfaces for components.
168 Find sponsors. This project will take a long time, and in its infant
169 stages, having a hard and small core which does a lot of work, is more
170 efficient than lots of people doing small subprojects. Finanicial
171 support would be desirable.