Annote: Digital Notation Annotation for RISM
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Oxford
Department Name: Engineering Science
Abstract
Digital annotations refer to highlights, references, links or other selections made on digital documents or media. User-generated annotations are increasingly seen as a key mechanism for the use and reuse of digital materials across a wide range of applications, while also enhancing the findability and accessibility of that media via its annotations.
Efforts to integrate annotation technology into online cultural collections have resulted in the development of technical standards. For instance, the International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) has notably incorporated annotation services for images, widely adopted by galleries and museums.
While the importance of annotations in music notation is similarly acknowledged, there is less of a consensus on how best to integrate them into interoperable software applications. Annotations for music can encompass the association of textual observations with regions of a work; cross-reference between musical passages or from a musical passage to some other, non-musical, material; or they might include categorical or structured music-analytical annotations, such as metrical or harmonic labels. Given this diversity, it's essential to align implementation to specific needs and use cases rather than assuming a universal solution.
The 'Annote' project will engage with the music library community to identify and document needs and priorities for annotation of music scores and incipits (opening melodies). It will apply research insights from 'Beethoven in the House' and earlier projects using Oxford's Music Encoding and Linked Data framework (MELD) to implement annotations in Verovio, an open source music engraving library. We will then provide training in their use.
The Annote team at the University of Oxford will work closely with their project partners at the RISM Digital Center, developers of Verovio and part of the Répertoire International des Sources Musicales (RISM), an international organisation founded in 1952 whose aim is to inventory music sources worldwide and make them accessible.
Annotation functionality added to Verovio by the project will be incorporated and sustained in all future versions of the software, and so become available wherever Verovio is deployed. Within RISM this extends to incipits displayed in the RISM online catalogue, and the Muscat catalogue entry system; beyond RISM this extends worldwide to over 40 projects, companies and cultural institutions. The project will carefully document the new functionality, and create training material for new users which we will present to the user community.
Verovio and MELD both use the Music Encoding Initiative (MEI), a community-driven effort to develop a system for encoding music notation in a machine-readable format. Once the extensions to Verovio are finalised, the Annote project will document its approach and propose our recommendations for incorporation in the MEI Guidelines, so that interoperable annotations can be created and consumed by other MEI-compatible software in the future.
Efforts to integrate annotation technology into online cultural collections have resulted in the development of technical standards. For instance, the International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) has notably incorporated annotation services for images, widely adopted by galleries and museums.
While the importance of annotations in music notation is similarly acknowledged, there is less of a consensus on how best to integrate them into interoperable software applications. Annotations for music can encompass the association of textual observations with regions of a work; cross-reference between musical passages or from a musical passage to some other, non-musical, material; or they might include categorical or structured music-analytical annotations, such as metrical or harmonic labels. Given this diversity, it's essential to align implementation to specific needs and use cases rather than assuming a universal solution.
The 'Annote' project will engage with the music library community to identify and document needs and priorities for annotation of music scores and incipits (opening melodies). It will apply research insights from 'Beethoven in the House' and earlier projects using Oxford's Music Encoding and Linked Data framework (MELD) to implement annotations in Verovio, an open source music engraving library. We will then provide training in their use.
The Annote team at the University of Oxford will work closely with their project partners at the RISM Digital Center, developers of Verovio and part of the Répertoire International des Sources Musicales (RISM), an international organisation founded in 1952 whose aim is to inventory music sources worldwide and make them accessible.
Annotation functionality added to Verovio by the project will be incorporated and sustained in all future versions of the software, and so become available wherever Verovio is deployed. Within RISM this extends to incipits displayed in the RISM online catalogue, and the Muscat catalogue entry system; beyond RISM this extends worldwide to over 40 projects, companies and cultural institutions. The project will carefully document the new functionality, and create training material for new users which we will present to the user community.
Verovio and MELD both use the Music Encoding Initiative (MEI), a community-driven effort to develop a system for encoding music notation in a machine-readable format. Once the extensions to Verovio are finalised, the Annote project will document its approach and propose our recommendations for incorporation in the MEI Guidelines, so that interoperable annotations can be created and consumed by other MEI-compatible software in the future.
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Kevin Page (Principal Investigator) |