BMML: A Mark-Up Language for Braille Music

Abstract

The need of an interchange format for music notation led to several XML encoding initiatives and among them to MusicXML, a de facto standard format supported by market leaders. The result is that music scores can be shared between applications and between users, delivered through the web and/or archived independently by the application that generated them. Braille music is a specific music notation for blind users, written in linear format, character by character. Traditionally Braille scores in electronic format are archived or shared as text files, with only character information dependent on some translation table. The available XML formats for music notation are not suitable to cover this specific notation. We present our approach to the problem and the key design concepts behind Braille Music Mark-up Language, developed as an open format by the EU funded CONTRAPUNCTUS[1] project.