3 GNU Music project - manifesto
7 Random ranting about the GNU Music project
11 Provide musicians with free software for
51 Music publishers make lots of money out of selling sheet music which
52 is in the public domain (the composers died a long time ago). It is
53 usually prohibited to xerox the sheet music. Publishers have two
54 arguments to justify this policy: the high prices are there to guarantee
55 diversity (keeping lots of stock is expensive), and to encourage new
58 LilyPond addresses the first issue: storing mudelas takes up almost no
59 space at all. Other systems should address the other issue:
60 encouraging laymen to take up composing, in the same way that GNU
61 tools have created a whole new generation of programmers.
63 The public deserves to get public domain music for free (zero cents).
65 The public deserves free tools for composing and printing.
67 In general, the same arguments as for software hold for music. See
68 Stallmans articles on free software.
73 Emacs and TeX serve as useful examples of what programs by the GMP
80 (cf TeX), from engraving point of view
84 (cf Emacs) from software point of view: like all GNU software, it
85 should have no limits, be fast, etc.
89 Printed music has a lot of styles, and special symbols. It may be
90 unfeasible to provide and maintain lots of code that is hardwired
91 into the system. The tools should be extensible/programmable like
96 That is, for technical users (that can read a manual). The learning
97 curve should be as easy as possible but not at the expense of comfort
102 =head1 TASKS (LONGTERM)
106 =item A set of music fonts
108 Preferably in Metafont, suited to both screen display and use on
109 paper; This is because the copyright heritage of {Opus,Musix}tex is unclear.
111 =item A typesetting engine.
113 A system with rules on how to set properties of items to be printed
114 (up/down directions, breaking, etc) LilyPond provides one, but it is
115 not yet suited to interactive typesetting
117 =item A display engine
119 which can display clear notewriting in (say) an X-window
121 Gsharp is there, but far from finished. Ideally the system should
122 cooperate with the typesetting engine
124 =item An ASCII language
126 In development, LilyPond has a language. (See over there for goals)
127 Having an ASCII format which enables urtext, and easy sharing (via
128 mail and news forums) encourages cooperation and exchange of music.
130 =item A printing engine
132 Maybe to be merged with the display system.
134 =item An input system
136 The natural way to enter composed music is singing or playing it. The
137 GMP should have module which can take keyboard input or microphone
138 input and convert it to computer data. (microphone input would be
143 (have no clue about this)
145 =item A scanning system
147 Having a system which can produce mudela from printed scores, greatly
148 simplifies creating a collection of music
150 =item A music-understanding system
152 (difficult) A system to generate accompaniments, figured bass,
153 automatic accompaniment, etc.
155 =item an internet archive of free music
157 The complete works by Bach, Beethoven, and any other ancient composer
158 should be electronically retrievable. This might be a separate
159 project: the Free Music Project.
169 A noninteractive typesetter, suited for batch jobs, and typesetting
170 existing music. This would couple the ASCII language, the printing
171 engine and the typesetting engine
173 LilyPond is currently representing this section.
177 A GUI for composing. This would combine the display engine, the input
178 system and the typesetting engine.
182 Libraries for reading and writing various audio/music/notation
187 The typesetting system has a complexity comparable to TeX's, the GUI
188 would be comparable to LyX (?) with additional complexity in
191 =head1 TASKS (SHORT TERM)
197 Gather a moderate number of test users and hackers
209 Think about interfaces for components.
213 Find sponsors. This project will take a long time, and in its infant
214 stages, having a hard and small core which does a lot of work, is more
215 efficient than lots of people doing small subprojects. Finanicial
216 support would be desirable.