Hello everyone,
Sorry for this long message, but I hope you who loves music and
wants to read accessible music scores read it patiently.
I'm thinking about a braille music project, and am searching for
your support. Because I'm a composer, I know how difficult we blind
search for braille music scores to read. There are really lots of
piano, organ, vocal and guitar music available in braille from
libraries such as RNIB, BIC (Italy), SBS (Switzerland), ONCE (Spain),
DZB (Germany) and Hoshi (japan). But many of our musicians are
learning composition or want to compose music for chamber ensemble,
orchestra or jazz ensemble. Unfortunately, there are few such scores
available. But fortunately, we can use Sibelius or Musescore to read
music using either Jaws or NVDA, and can use Braillemuse or Goodfeel
to convert Musicxml files into braille. There are many classical music
in Sibelius or Finale format on the web, but the amount is too small.
Also, the current translation software is not enough for publishing
requirements. So, I'm thinking about two things:
1. Making out a perfect translation software. I'm now writing a
detailed framework of my project--BrailleOrch, a software which will
be written using Python. It can translate musicxml into my modified
and extended version of BMML format (BMML was made by Contrapunctus
project and Music4vip project, but has stopped developing for several
years), which can be flexibly edited and reformatted to fulfill any
requirements. There are many music publishers who are using
Finale/Sibelius, but they will not give their files to individuals. If
we can make such a package, then they can just send us a BrailleOrch
version, which can be copy-protected to avoid back translation. I'm
now working with Daniel Barich on this project, and hope any of you
who can write Python can attend this open source project in the
future. The framework will be available in the middle of this year,
and we will host the project on Github. Once the software is out, we
can obtain large number of scores from publishers or certified braille
transcribers, without wating for complicated manual transcription and
post-editing process. The post-production of BrailleOrch is much
simpler than those done using Goodfeel and Braillemuse.
2. There are still many scores not in translatable notation program
formats. They are the ones published during the middle of last
century, and the ones made using very old softwares like Score. Music
by Bartok, Lutoslawski, Messiaen etc are perhaps in this category. So
we should find someone to engrave such scores into Sibelius, and even
now we can read them. I'm in China, and there is a very cheap service
compared to European and American ones. The cost is 25 Yuan (about 4
dollars) per scannable page, and 30 yuan (about 5 dollars) per
unscannable page. So, I think anyone who are interested in such a
project can help ourselves to build up a score library in this way.
We, including me, can pay for the same service by average fee, then
enjoy the same scores we want. This saves everyone's money. If any of
you are interested in it, the person of the service can apply a Paypal
account to receive money. The speed is very fast, a 700-page score can
be finished withing 2 months!
I have been thinking about such a project for years, and make this
public today. Hope anyone who has more experience and ideas can join
in, and we can help ourselves in the future.
Regards
Haipeng
PLEASE READ THIS FOOTER AT LEAST ONCE!
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