imported>Caeciliusinhorto-public: /* History */ rm: while no doubt something conceptually similar was used earlier (at least as soon as there were computers the idea of writing music using the letter names for the notes rather than drawing a stave must have been obvious, if not before) ABC Notation as A Thing seems to have been developed by Walshaw without any awareness of an existing tradition of that

2025-05-23T15:57:38Z

History: rm: while no doubt something conceptually similar was used earlier (at least as soon as there were computers the idea of writing music using the letter names for the notes rather than drawing a stave must have been obvious, if not before) ABC Notation as A Thing seems to have been developed by Walshaw without any awareness of an existing tradition of that

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{{Short description|Form of musical notation for computers}}
{{Multiple issues|
{{primary sources|date=August 2015}}
{{unreliable sources|date=August 2015}}
}}{{use dmy dates|date=April 2021}}
{{Infobox file format
| url= {{URL|http://abcnotation.com}}
| extension={{tt|.abc}}
| mime = text/vnd.abc
| genre = [[musical notation]]
| open = Yes
| developer = Chris Walshaw
| released = {{start date and age|1997|01}}
| latest_release_version = 2.1
| latest_release_date = {{start date and age|2011|12}}
}}
'''ABC notation''' is a shorthand form of [[musical notation]] for computers. In basic form it uses the [[letter notation]] with {{big|<code>a</code>}}–{{big|<code>g</code>}}, {{big|<code>A</code>}}–{{big|<code>G</code>}}, and {{big|<code>z</code>}}, to represent the corresponding [[musical note|notes and rests]], along with other elements used to place added value on these – [[accidental (music)|sharp, flat]], raised or lowered [[octave]], the [[duration (music)|note length]], [[key (music)|key]], and [[ornament (music)|ornamentation]]. This form of notation began from a combination of [[Helmholtz pitch notation]] and using [[ASCII]] characters to imitate standard musical notation (bar lines, tempo marks, etc.) that could facilitate the sharing of music online, and also added a new and simple language for [[music software|software]] developers, not unlike other notations designed for ease, such as [[tablature]] and [[solfège]].

The earlier ABC notation was built on, standardized, and changed by Chris Walshaw to better fit the keyboard and an [[ASCII]] character set, with the help and input of others. Originally designed to encode [[Folk music|folk and traditional]] [[Western European]] tunes (''e.g.'', from England, Ireland, and Scotland) which are typically single-voice melodies that can be written in [[list of musical symbols|standard notation]] on a single staff line, the extensions by Walshaw and others has opened this up with an increased list of characters and headers in a syntax that can also support metadata for each tune.<ref>{{cite web |last=Walshaw |first=Chris |title=Introduction |series=abc music notation |website=abcnotation.com |url=http://abcnotation.com |access-date=1 March 2008}}</ref>

ABC notation being [[ASCII]]-based, any text editor can be used to create and edit the encoding. Even so, there are now many ABC notation software packages available that offer a wide variety of features, including the ability to read and process ABC notation into [[MIDI]] files and as standard "dotted" notation. Such software is readily available for most computer systems, including [[Microsoft Windows]], [[Unix]] / [[Linux]], [[Macintosh]], [[Palm OS]], and web-based.<ref>{{cite web |last=Walshaw |first=Chris |title=History |series=abc music notation |website=abcnotation.org.uk |url=http://abcnotation.com/history.html |access-date=1 March 2008}}</ref>

Later third-party software packages have provided direct output, bypassing the TeX typesetter,<ref>{{cite web |last=Vint |first=Jim |website=abc2win.com |url=http://www.abc2win.com/ |title=ABC2Win shareware music notation program |access-date=1 March 2008 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080304010824/http://www.abc2win.com/ |archive-date=4 March 2008}}</ref> and have extended the syntax to support [[lyrics]] aligned with notes,<ref>{{cite web |last=Methfessel |first=Michael |title=ABC2PS |type=personal webpage |publisher=The Institute for Semiconductor Physics |website=ihp-ffo.de |url=http://www.ihp-ffo.de/~msm/ |access-date=1 March 2008 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080212005024/http://www.ihp-ffo.de/~msm/ |archive-date=February 12, 2008}}</ref> multi-voice and multi-staff notation,<ref>{{cite web |last=Moine |first=Jean-François |title=abcm2ps |website=Jef's page |url=http://moinejf.free.fr/ |access-date=1 March 2008}}</ref> [[tablature]],<ref>{{cite web |last=Dalitz |first=Christoph |title=abctab2ps |website=Lauten Gesellschaft |url=http://www.lautengesellschaft.de/cdmm/ |access-date=1 March 2008 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080206001047/http://www.lautengesellschaft.de/cdmm/ |archive-date=6 February 2008}}</ref> and [[MIDI]].<ref>{{cite web |last=Allwright |first=James |title=abcMIDI |website=abc.sourceforge.net |url=http://abc.sourceforge.net/abcMIDI/ |access-date=1 March 2008 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080309102757/http://abc.sourceforge.net/abcMIDI/ |archive-date=9 March 2008}}</ref>

== History ==
In the 1980s Chris Walshaw began writing out fragments of folk / traditional tunes using letters to represent the notes before he learned standard Western music notation. Later he began using <code>[[MusiXTeX|MusicTeX]]</code> to notate French bagpipe music. To reduce the tedium of writing the <code>MusicTeX</code> code, he wrote a front-end for generating the [[TeX]] commands, which by 1993 evolved into the <code>abc2mtex</code> program.<ref>{{cite web |last=Walshaw |first=Chris |series=abc music notation |title=Software |publisher=abcnotation.org.uk |url=http://abcnotation.com/software.html |access-date=1 March 2008}}</ref> For more details see Chris Walshaw's short history of ABC<ref>{{cite web |last=Walshaw |first=Chris |title=A brief history of abc |url=http://abcnotation.com/history.html |website=abcnotation.com |access-date=November 25, 2017}}</ref> and John Chambers's chronology of ABC notation and software.<ref>{{cite web |last=Chambers |first=John |title=History |series=abc music notation |publisher=[[MIT]] |url=http://trillian.mit.edu/~jc/music/abc/doc/ABCtut_History.html |access-date=November 25, 2017}}</ref>

=== Standardization ===
The most recent standard for ABC was released 21 December 2011.<ref>{{cite web |title=The abc music standard 2.1 |date=21 December 2011 |url=http://abcnotation.com/wiki/abc:standard:v2.1 |access-date=21 December 2011}}</ref> It is a textual description of ABC syntax, cleaning up many of the ambiguities of the 2.0 ''Draft Standard'', which, in turn, was grown from the 1996 ''User Guide'' of version 1.6 of Chris Walshaw's original <code>{{cite web |url=http://abcnotation.com/abc2mtex/ |title=abc2mtex}}</code> program. In 1997, Henrik Norbeck published a [[Backus–Naur form]] (BNF).<ref>{{cite web |last=Norbeck |first=Henrik |title=ABC 1.6 in BNF format |url=http://www.norbeck.nu/abc/abcbnf.htm |access-date=1 March 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080309023424/http://www.norbeck.nu/abc/abcbnf.htm |archive-date=9 March 2008}}</ref>

In 1997, Steve Allen registered the <code>text/vnd.abc</code> [[MIME]] media type with the [[Internet Assigned Numbers Authority]] (IANA),<ref>{{cite web |title=Registration of MIME media type text/vnd.abc |url=https://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/text/vnd.abc |access-date=1 March 2008}}</ref> but registration as a top level MIME type would require a formal [[Request for Comments]] (RFC).<ref>{{cite web |last=Allen |first=Steve |title=ABC as a MIME type |url=http://www.ucolick.org/~sla/abcmusic/abcmime.html |access-date=1 March 2008}}</ref> In 2006 Phil Taylor reported that quite a few websites still serve ABC files as <code>text/plain</code>.<ref>{{cite web |last=Taylor |first=Phil |title=abcusers: Re: ABC on the web |type=Yahoo discussion group |url=http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/abcusers/message/477 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120630133757/http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/abcusers/message/477 |url-status=dead |archive-date=30 June 2012 |access-date=1 March 2008}}</ref>

In 1999, Chris Walshaw started work on a new version of the ABC specification to standardize the extensions that had been developed in various third-party tools. After much discussion on the ABC users mailing list, a draft standard (nominal version 1.7.6) was eventually produced in August 2000, but was never officially released.<ref name="Walshaw">{{cite web |last=Walshaw |first=Chris |title=Learning |series=abc music notation |website=abcnotation.org.uk |url=http://abcnotation.com/learn.html |access-date=1 March 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090721003014/http://abcnotation.com/learn.html |archive-date=July 21, 2009}}</ref> Thereafter, Chris stepped away for several years from actively developing ABC.<ref>{{cite web |last=Walshaw |first=Chris |title=Further information |series=abc music notation |website=abcnotation.org.uk |url=http://abcnotation.com/contact.html |access-date=1 March 2008}}</ref>

Guido Gonzato later compiled a new version of the specification and published a draft of version 2.0. This specification is now maintained by Irwin Oppenheim. Henrik Norbeck has also published a corresponding BNF specification.<ref>{{cite web |last=Oppenheim |first=Irwin |title=The ABC music standard |url=http://abc.sourceforge.net/standard/ |access-date=1 March 2008 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080221184555/http://abc.sourceforge.net/standard/ |archive-date= 21 February 2008}}</ref>

After a surge of renewed interest in clarifying some ambiguities in the 2.0 draft and suggestions for new features, serious discussion of a new (and official) standard resumed in 2011, culminating in the release of ABC 2.1 as a new standard in late December 2011. Chris Walshaw has become involved again and is coordinating the effort to further improve and clarify the language, with plans for topics to be addressed in future versions to be known as ABC 2.2 and ABC 2.3 .

== Example ==
The following is an example of the use of ABC notation in [[MediaWiki]].

<syntaxhighlight lang="xml"><score lang="ABC">
X:1
T:The Legacy Jig
M:6/8
L:1/8
R:jig
K:G
GFG BAB | gfg gab | GFG BAB | d2A AFD |
GFG BAB | gfg gab | age edB |1 dBA AFD :|2 dBA ABd |:
efe edB | dBA ABd | efe edB | gdB ABd |
efe edB | d2d def | gfe edB |1 dBA ABd :|2 dBA AFD |]
</score></syntaxhighlight>

Lines in the first part of the tune notation, beginning with a letter followed by a colon, indicate various aspects of the tune such as the index, when there is more than one tune in a file (<code>X:</code>), the title (<code>T:</code>), the time signature (<code>M:</code>), the default note length (<code>L:</code>), the type of tune (<code>R:</code>) and the key (<code>K:</code>). Lines following the key designation represent the tune. This example can be translated into traditional music notation using one of the ABC conversion tools. For example, the {{Self-reference link|:mw:Extension:Score|Score extension}} (using [[LilyPond]]'s <code>abc2ly</code>) code for the MediaWiki software renders this as:

<score lang="ABC" sound=1>
X:1
T:The Legacy Jig
M:6/8
L:1/8
R:jig
K:G
GFG BAB | gfg gab | GFG BAB | d2A AFD |
GFG BAB | gfg gab | age edB |1 dBA AFD :|2 dBA ABd |:
efe edB | dBA ABd | efe edB | gdB ABd |
efe edB | d2d def | gfe edB |1 dBA ABd :|2 dBA AFD |]
</score>

While abcm2ps software produces output that looks like:

[[Image:Legacy jig.png|700px]]

More examples can be found on Chris Walshaw's ABC examples page,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://abcnotation.com/examples.html |title=Examples |series=abc music notation |website=ABCNotation.com |access-date=12 March 2019}}</ref> extensively displaying most ABC basic features, except rests, which would be denoted with <code>z</code>.

== Collaborative ABC ==
Recently, ABC has been implemented as a means of composing and editing music in collaborative environments. Some Wiki environments that have been adapted to use ABC are:
* The Wiki-score platform for collaborative, large-scale score editing uses ABC as base notation.
* The <code>[[mw:Extension:Score|Score]]</code> plugin for [[MediaWiki]]. This uses GNU [[LilyPond]] as the underlying rendering engine. LilyPond comes packaged with a script, <code>abc2ly</code>, that converts ABC notation to LilyPond. The extension calls abc2ly then LilyPond.
* <code>MusicWiki</code>, a Python plugin implementation for [[MoinMoin]] wikis
* <code>AbcMusic</code> for displaying ABC notation in [[PmWiki]]
* {{cite book |title=Montreal Session Tune Book |url=https://www.montrealsession.ca/complete.php }} collaborative source for traditional music using a tailored version of the <code>AbcMusic</code> plugin
* The <code>gabc</code> notation, developed by the [[Gregorio (software)|Gregorio Project]] for transcriptions of [[Gregorian chant]] scores
* ABC plugin for displaying ABC notation in [[DokuWiki]]. This plugin uses Jef Moine's <code>abcm2ps</code> package as the rendering engine. It optionally uses <code>abc2MIDI</code> (available from the ABC Plus Project) to produce MIDI audio output.
* <code>EasyABC</code> is an ABC-editor that supports MIDI export and SVG rendering.
* <code>abcjs</code> plugin for displaying ABC notation on any web page. This allows ABC to be stored as text on the server and rendered client-side.
* Zap's <code>ABC</code> is an [[Android (operating system)|Android]] application combining <code>abcm2ps</code>, <code>abc2midi</code>, and a bit of <code>abc4j</code> into a tool for composing.
* The multiplayer game [[The Lord of the Rings Online]] now uses the ABC notation to allow players to convert and play any MIDI music file in-game. The players play the music by having their character play the corresponding instrument.
* The PC game [[Starbound]] allows players to use in-game instruments to play custom music.

==See also==
* [[GUIDO music notation]]
* [[Helmholtz pitch notation]]
* [[LilyPond]]
* [[Numbered musical notation]], widely used in China
* [[Tonic sol-fa]]

==References==
{{reflist|25em}}

{{Commons category}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abc Notation}}
[[Category:Music notation file formats]]

ABC notation - Revision history