MUSIC NOTATION IN MAX/MSP

This paper presents MaxScore, a Max object that provides standard western music notation in Max/MSP (Puckette, Zicarelli). MaxScore supports a rich set of Max messages that allows the user to populate a score with notes, query note properties, transform notes, play a score through Max/MSP via a well-defined instrument interface, and export a score in a variety of popular notation formats including MusicXML and LilyPond (Nienhuys). Transcription of Max-generated music is provided as well as note entry and editing by mouse or under program control. MaxScore supports user-defined plug-ins written in Java. We also present two applications, which utilize MaxScore: one that generates compositions in real-time, and another, which performs spectral transcription. MaxScore is written in Java Music Specification Language (Didkovsky, Burk) but requires no Java programming to use.