Scribe

Scribe renders music notation in HTML.

Scribe takes a sequence of events – notes, chords, meter changes and so on – and renders notation as symbols in a CSS grid that displays as a bar and stave.

There is a description of the CSS grid system in the blog post Printing Music with CSS Grid. Many detials have changed since that post was written but the principal layout technique remains the same.

Download

Scribe 0.3 is a rewrite, and does not yet have a release build. Development builds are kept in the build/ folder.

<scribe-music>

Scribe 0.3 is a rewrite, and this custom element is the test bed. To try out the development version of the element, import the css and register the element:

<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://stephen.band/scribe/build/scribe-music/module.css" />
<script type="module" src="https://stephen.band/scribe/build/scribe-music/module.js"></script>

Now the <scribe-music> element renders music notation from data found in it's content:

<scribe-music type="sequence" clef="treble" meter="4/4">
    0 chord Dmaj    4
    0 F#5 0.2 1
    0 A4  0.2 1
    0 D4  0.2 1
</scribe-music>

Or imported from a file in its src attribute:

<scribe-music type="application/json" src="/path/to/json"></scribe-music>

Or set on it's data property:

let scribe = document.body.querySelector('scribe-music');

scribe.data = {
    name:      'My Song',
    events:    [...]
};

Scribe consumes Sequence JSON (and data objects of the same structure). Events are described by arrays of data in the .events array:

scribe.data = {
    events: [
        [0, "note", "G4", 0.2, 3]
    ]
};

Each event type has its own structure. Scribe 0.3 supports these event types:

beat	type	2	3	4
beat	"chord"	root	mode	duration
beat	"note"	pitch	dynamic	duration
beat	"meter"	duration	divisor
beat	"rate"	number
beat	"key"	notename
beat	"clef"	clefname

Scribe 0.3 also parses a shorthand version of this format intended for quick hand authoring, as in the first example above, which is basically Sequence JSON structure with all the JSON syntax – commas and brackets and quotemarks – removed.

Scribe 0.3 also parses ABC (thanks to the parser from ABCjs).

type="json"

Both an attribute and a property. Mimetype or type of data to fetch from src or to parse from text content. Scribe supports 3 types of data:

• "application/json", or just "json"
• "text/x-abc", or just "abc"
• "sequence"

src="url"

Both an attribute and a property. The URL of a file containing sequence data in JSON or ABC.

clef="treble"

Both an attribute and a property. The name of the clef, one of "treble", "bass", "piano", "drum", "percussion" or "chords". Defaults to "treble".

<scribe-music clef="bass">...</scribe-music>

let scribe = document.body.querySelector('scribe-music');
scribe.clef = "bass";

key="C"

Both an attribute and a property. Gets and sets the key signature of the stave. Accepts any chromatic note name, spelled with unicode sharps ♯ and flats ♭ or with hash # and small case b. This is the name of the tonic of a major scale. Defaults to "C".

<scribe-music key="F#">...</scribe-music>

let scribe = document.body.querySelector('scribe-music');
scribe.key = "B♭";

There is no provision for choosing a 'minor' key. Declare its relative major.

The key is the key signature pre-transpose. If scribe.transpose is something other than 0, the key signature is transposed.

meter="4/4"

Both an attribute and a property. The meter, expressed as a standard time signature. This setting is overridden by any meter event found in the data at beat 0. If this attribute is omitted (or the property not set in JS), no time signature is displayed (unless the data contains a "meter" event at beat 0). Defaults to "4/4".

<scribe-music meter="3/4">...</scribe-music>

let scribe = document.body.querySelector('scribe-music');
scribe.meter = "3/4";

transpose="0"

Both an attribute and a property. Sets scribe to render notation transposed by transpose semitones. Transposition is applied to key signature, notes and chords before render, and not to the underlying data.

<scribe-music transpose="2">...</scribe-music>

let scribe = document.body.querySelector('scribe-music');
scribe.transpose = 2;

.data

Property only. Set a .data object, structured as a Sequence, to render it.

let scribe = document.body.querySelector('scribe-music');
scribe.data = {
    name:      'My Song',
    events:    [...]
};

Get Scribe's internal data object, whose structure is a Sequence. To export Sequence JSON, simply stringify scribe.data:

let scribe = document.body.querySelector('scribe-music');
let mySong = JSON.stringify(scribe.data);

---

Sequence format

The "sequence" format is intended for quick hand-authoring, and not as an export format. The format is basically Sequence JSON events but with all the JSON syntax – commas, quotes, brackets – removed. Values are delineated by whitespace. Any value that does not parse as a number becomes a string.

0 meter 4 1
0 chord D maj 4
0 note F#5 0.2 2
1 note A4  0.2 1
4 note D4  0.2 1

If notes have named pitches (as opposed to numbered pitches), declaring the note type is optional.

0 meter 4 1
0 chord D maj 4
0 F#5 0.2 2
1 A4  0.2 1
4 D4  0.2 1

The same is true for chords.

0 meter 4 1
0 D maj 4
0 F#5 0.2 2
1 A4  0.2 1
4 D4  0.2 1

Develop

To install Scribe locally clone the repo and update the submodules:

git clone https://github.com/stephband/scribe.git scribe
cd scribe
git submodule update --init

To check things are working serve this directory and navigate to host://scribe-music/index.html (obviously host:// needs to be replaced depending on what you are using as a server).

Changes

0.3.1

• Adds support for SMuFL fonts

Roadmap

Asides from some immediate improvements I can make to Scribe 0.3, like tuning the autospeller and fixing the 1/16th-note beams and detecting and displaying tuplets, here are some longer-term features I would like to investigate:

• Support for nested sequences – enabling multi-part tunes.
• Split-stave rendering – placing multiple parts on one stave. The mechanics for this are already half in place – the drums stave and piano stave currently auto-split by pitch.
• Multi-stave rendering – placing multiple parts on multiple, aligned, staves.

Credits

Developed at Cruncher by Stephen Band.

Rich Sigler of Sigler Music Fonts jazzfont.com very kindly granted permission to use JazzFont shapes as SVG paths in this project (although Scribe now renders SMuFL fonts so SVG shapes are no longer used).

Scribe logo/mascot by Mariana Alt.

Gavin Band dreamt up probabalistic key centre analysis.

ABC parser borrowed from ABCjs.

Code contributions: Halit Celik.