MusicXML 4.1 Draft > Version History > Version 3.1

Version 3.1

Released December 2017

Licensing Changes

• MusicXML 3.1 is now licensed under the W3C Community Final Specification Agreement rather than the MusicXML Public License 3.0. (Issue 114)

Packaging Changes

• MusicXML 3.1 now recommends .musicxml rather than .xml as the file extension for uncompressed MusicXML files. (Issue 191)
• MusicXML 3.1 adds a new file called mimetype as the first file in the zip container of a compressed MusicXML file. The file is uncompressed and has the string application/vnd.recordare.musicxml as its content. (Issue 185)
• MusicXML 3.1 files now have recommended Uniform Type Identifiers. (Issue 50)

Schema Additions

New Elements

• The <arrowhead> element represents arrowheads without an arrow stem. (Issue 183)
• The <beat-unit-tied> element represents tied notes in regular metronome marks. (Issue 92)
• The <brass-bend> element represents the u-shaped bend symbol used in brass notation. (Issue 44)
• The <credit-symbol> element specifies a musical symbol using a canonical SMuFL glyph name. It is used when an occasional musical symbol is interspersed into text. (Issue 163)
• The <except-voice> element is used to specify a combination of slash notation and regular notation. (Issue 231)
• The <figure> element may now have the <footnote> and <level> elements as optional child elements. (Issue 94)
• The <flip> element represents the flip symbol used in brass notation. (Issue 44)
• The <glyph> element represents what SMuFL glyph should be used for different variations of symbols that are semantically identical. (Issue 64, Issue 71, Issue 72)
• The <golpe> element represents the golpe symbol that is used for tapping the pick guard in guitar music. (Issue 100)
• The <half-muted> element represents the half-muted symbol which looks like a circle with a plus sign inside. (Issue 44)
• The <harmon-mute> element represents the symbols used for harmon mutes in brass notation. (Issue 44)
• The <haydn> element represents the Haydn ornament, defined in SMuFL as ornamentHaydn. (Issue 95)
• The <inverted-vertical-turn> element represents the turn symbol shape arranged vertically going from upper left to lower right. (Issue 95)
• The <metronome-arrows> element indicates the presence of metric modulation arrows on both sides of the metronome mark. (Issue 93)
• The <metronome-tied> element represents tied notes in metric modulations and other metric relationships. (Issue 92)
• The <n> element represents an n dynamic. (Issue 52)
• A single <note> element may now have both <cue> and <grace> child elements. (Issue 68)
• The <open> element represents the open symbol, which looks like a circle. (Issue 44)
• The <pf> element represents a pf dynamic. (Issue 52)
• The <sfzp> element represents an sfzp dynamic. (Issue 52)
• The <smear> element represents the tilde-shaped smear symbol used in brass notation. (Issue 44)
• The <soft-accent> element indicates a soft accent that is not as heavy as a normal accent. It is often notated as <>. (Issue 131)
• The <staff-divide> element represents staff division arrow symbols. (Issue 11)
• The <symbol> element specifies a musical symbol using a canonical SMuFL glyph name. It is used when an occasional musical symbol is interspersed into text. (Issue 163)

New Attributes

• The abbreviated and number attributes have been added to the <pedal> element. (Issue 102)
• The bracket, parentheses, and size attributes have been added to the <accidental-mark> element. (Issue 218)
• The hand attribute has been added to the <tap> element. (Issue 100)
• The height and width attributes have been added to the <credit-image> and <image> elements. (Issue 3)
• The id attribute has been added to the <accidental-mark>, <accordion-registration>, <arpeggiate>, <articulations>, <barline>, <beam>, <bracket>, <clef>, <coda>, <credit>, <credit-image>, <credit-words>, <damp>, <damp-all>, <dashes>, <direction>, <direction-type>, <dynamics>, <eyeglasses>, <fermata>, <figured-bass>, <frame>, <glissando>, <grouping>, <harmony>, <harp-pedals>, <image>, <key>, <lyric>, <measure>, <measure-style>, <metronome>, <non-arpeggiate>, <notations>, <note>, <octave-shift>, <ornaments>, <other-direction>, <other-notation>, <pedal>, <percussion>, <principal-voice>, <print>, <rehearsal>, <scordatura>, <segno>, <slide>, <slur>, <sound>, <string-mute>, <technical>, <tied>, <time>, <transpose>, <tuplet>, <wedge>, and <words> elements. (Issue 145)
• The line-length attribute has been added to the <doit>, <falloff>, <plop>, and <scoop> elements. (Issue 44)
• The parentheses and dashed-circle attributes have been added to the <stick> element. (Issue 85)
• The print-leger attribute has been added to the <note> element. (Issue 184)
• The smufl attribute has been added to the <accidental>, <accidental-mark>, <accidental-text>, and <key-accidental> elements. (Issue 109)
• The smufl attribute has been added to the <arrow> and <stopped> elements. (Issue 79)
• The smufl attribute has been added to the <coda> and <segno> elements. (Issue 84)
• The smufl attribute has been added to the <elision> element. (Issue 101)
• The smufl attribute has been added to the <glass> element. (Issue 80)
• The smufl attribute has been added to the <notehead> element. (Issue 88, Issue 89, Issue 110)
• The smufl attribute has been added to the <other-articulation>, <other-direction>, <other-dynamics>, <other-notation>, <other-ornament>, <other-percussion>, and <other-technical> elements. (Issue 107)
• The smufl attribute has been added to the <pitched> element. (Issue 82)
• The smufl attribute has been added to the <tremolo> element. (Issue 99)
• The text attribute has been added to the <measure> element. (Issue 69)
• The time-only attribute has been added to the <lyric> element. (Issue 151)

New Values

• New values double-sharp-down, double-sharp-up, flat-flat-down, flat-flat-up, arrow-down, arrow-up, and other have been added to the accidental-value type, used by the <accidental>, <accidental-mark>, <accidental-text>, and <key-accidental> elements. (Issue 83)
• New values drum stick and superball have been added to the beater-value type, used by the <beater> element. (Issue 85)
• The slide brush on gong value has been added to the beater-value type, used by the <beater> element. (Issue 76)
• The salzedo and upbow values have been added to the breath-mark-value type, used by the <breath-mark> element. (Issue 9)
• The <caesura> element uses the new caesura-value type with values of normal, thick, short, curved, and single. An empty string value is included for compatibility with MusicXML 3.0. (Issue 9)
• New values lotus flute and megaphone have been added to the effect type, used by the <effect> element. (Issue 73)
• New values pentagon, hexagon, heptagon, octagon, nonagon, and decagon have been added to the enclosure-shape type, used by the enclosure attribute. (Issue 86)
• New values double-angled, double-square, double-dot, half-curve, and curlew have been added to the fermata-shape type, used by the <fermata> element. (Issue 9)
• New values glass harmonica and glass harp have been added to the glass-value type, used by the <glass> element. (Issue 81)
• The belltree value has been added to the handbell-value type, used by the <handbell> element. (Issue 79)
• New values Chinese tomtom, cuica, Indo-American tomtom, Japanese tomtom, and tabla have been added to the membrane type, used by the <membrane> element. (Issue 75)
• New values agogo, bell tree, cencerro, jingle bells, and shell bells have been added to the metal type, used by the <metal> element. (Issue 78)
• The chain rattle value has been added to the metal type, used by the <metal> element. (Issue 74)
• New values jaw harp and musical saw have been added to the metal type, used by the <metal> element. (Issue 81)
• The tam tam with beater value has been added to the metal type, used by the <metal> element. (Issue 76)
• The circled value has been added to notehead-value type, used by the <notehead> element. (Issue 91)
• The other value has been added to notehead-value type, used by the <notehead> element. (Issue 110)
• The sostenuto value has been added to the pedal-type type, used by the type attribute of the <pedal> element. (Issue 102)
• New values celesta, lithophone, steel drums, and tubaphone have been added to the pitched-value type, used by the <pitched> element. (Issue 82)
• The plus value has been added to the <prefix> element. (Issue 94)
• New values glockenspiel, gum, hammer, superball, and wound have been added to the stick-type type, used by the <stick-type> element. (Issue 85)
• The grace-cue value has been added to the symbol-size type, used by the size attribute. (Issue 68)
• New values back-slash, plus, and vertical have been added to the <suffix> element. (Issue 94)
• The let-ring value has been added to the type attribute of the <tied> element. (Issue 142)
• The grace-cue value has been added to the note-size-type type, used by the type attribute. (Issue 68)
• The unmeasured value has been added to the tremolo-type type, used by the type attribute of the <tremolo> element. (Issue 99)
• New values bamboo scraper, castanets with handle, football rattle, quijada, reco-reco, and whip have been added to the wood type, used by the <wood> element. (Issue 77)
• The rainstick value has been added to the wood type, used by the <wood> element. (Issue 74)

Removed and Deprecated Features

• The font-family, font-size, font-style, and font-weight attributes have been removed from the <extend> element. The <extend> element contains no text, and these attributes were added by mistake in MusicXML 1.1. (Issue 140)
• The bezier-offset and bezier-offset2 attributes are deprecated as of MusicXML 3.1. (Issue 26)

Documentation Changes

MusicXML 3.1 made the following changes to the XSD and DTD schema documentation.

• The DTD documentation for the <actual-notes> and <normal-notes> elements has been corrected to fix a typo. (Issue 138)
• The XSD and DTD documentation for the <accordion-high>, <accordion-low>, and <accordion-middle> elements clarifies that the elements are omitted if no dots are present. (Issue 134)
• The XSD and DTD documentation for the attack and release attributes and their interrelationship has been clarified. (Issue 58)
• The XSD and DTD documentation for the bezier-x, bezier-y, bezier-x2, bezier-y2, bezier-offset, and bezier-offset2 attributes and their interrelationships has been clarified. (Issue 25, Issue 26)
• The cancel complex type XSD documentation now describes the location attribute correctly. (Issue 18)
• The <cue> element XSD and DTD documentation clarifies that the <cue> element indicates silent notes. (Issue 67)
• The <direction> element XSD and DTD documentation clarifies the relationship between <direction> and <note> elements. (Issue 170)
• The <falloff> element XSD documentation has been corrected to indicate the falloff comes after the note. (Issue 17)
• The interchangeable complex type XSD documentation no longer refers to a non-existent parentheses attribute. (Issue 12)
• The <key-octave> element XSD and DTD documentation clarifies the behavior of the cancel attribute. (Issue 126)
• The multiple-rest complex type XSD documentation no longer refers to a non-existent type attribute. (Issue 15)
• The note-type complex type XSD documentation now refers to 1024th to maxima instead of 256th to long. (Issue 16)
• The number-level simple type XSD documentation now refers to an optional rather than implied value. (Issue 19)
• The string-number simple type and <string> element XSD and DTD documentation clarifies how string numbers are ordered. (Issue 127)
• The <tied> element XSD and DTD documentation clarifies how to represent different types of single-ended tie symbols. (Issue 142)
• The <wavy-line> element XSD and DTD documentation now refers to <barline> rather than <measure> elements. (Issue 13)