Beyond MIDI: The Handbook of Musical Codes

Reviews

Notes (Dec 98) by Douglas Irving Repetto of Dartmouth College.: Beyond MIDI is a valuable reference text for anyone dealing with the theory or practice of encoding music data. Many systems--commercial, experimental, defunct, and just created--are presented, often in great detail.
Computer Music Journal, 23(2), (Spring 1999) by Robert Rowe, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.: Besides being a superb reference for such a wide variety of music codes, Beyond MIDI makes a valuable contribution to the issues surrounding the field of music representation generally. There have over the years been many representations implemented and many discussions of the necessary features such codes must include. As a repository of extensive information about what has been done over the last twenty or thirty years, Beyond MIDI offers an opportunity to consider the issues from the bottom up: rather than deciding the framework of a general music representation from a theoretical standpoint, one can examine a large corpus of existing codes and see which common characteristics emerge.
Music Theory Online 5/4 (Sept. 1999) by John William Schaffer.: The book ... accomplishes what most well-written books should but few actually do: it presents us with enough of the right information targeted at the appropriate audience and presented in such a way that it enables the reader to continue where the book leaves off. In this case, it empowers those of us who are "doers" to propel ourselves into the status of "power doers."
Music, in whatever form it is perceived or explored, presents us with an extremely complex set of data that requires an extraordinary representational model even to begin to capture its essence. No one model can embody it all; instead, we must strive to solidify and implement those concepts necessary to meet our immediate needs. Beyond MIDI attempts to do just that by offering us a pastiche of numerous different models for accomplishing musical representations.
There is no other source that comes close to matching the breadth, quantity, and quality of information amassed in this one work. Much of the information simply is not available anywhere within easy reach. I must commend the editor and contributing authors for a splendid job of creating an invaluable reference work.