Version 3.1

Released December 2017

Licensing Changes

MusicXML 3.1 is now licensed under the W3C Community Final Specification Agreement rather than the MusicXML Public License 3.0. (Issue 114)

Packaging Changes

MusicXML 3.1 now recommends .musicxml rather than .xml as the file extension for uncompressed MusicXML files. (Issue 191)
MusicXML 3.1 adds a new file called mimetype as the first file in the zip container of a compressed MusicXML file. The file is uncompressed and has the string application/vnd.recordare.musicxml as its content. (Issue 185)
MusicXML 3.1 files now have recommended Uniform Type Identifiers. (Issue 50)

Schema Additions

New Elements

The <arrowhead> element represents arrowheads without an arrow stem. (Issue 183)
The <beat-unit-tied> element represents tied notes in regular metronome marks. (Issue 92)
The <brass-bend> element represents the u-shaped bend symbol used in brass notation. (Issue 44)
The <credit-symbol> element specifies a musical symbol using a canonical SMuFL glyph name. It is used when an occasional musical symbol is interspersed into text. (Issue 163)
The <except-voice> element is used to specify a combination of slash notation and regular notation. (Issue 231)
The <figure> element may now have the <footnote> and <level> elements as optional child elements. (Issue 94)
The <flip> element represents the flip symbol used in brass notation. (Issue 44)
The <glyph> element represents what SMuFL glyph should be used for different variations of symbols that are semantically identical. (Issue 64, Issue 71, Issue 72)
The <golpe> element represents the golpe symbol that is used for tapping the pick guard in guitar music. (Issue 100)
The <half-muted> element represents the half-muted symbol which looks like a circle with a plus sign inside. (Issue 44)
The <harmon-mute> element represents the symbols used for harmon mutes in brass notation. (Issue 44)
The <haydn> element represents the Haydn ornament, defined in SMuFL as ornamentHaydn. (Issue 95)
The <inverted-vertical-turn> element represents the turn symbol shape arranged vertically going from upper left to lower right. (Issue 95)
The <metronome-arrows> element indicates the presence of metric modulation arrows on both sides of the metronome mark. (Issue 93)
The <metronome-tied> element represents tied notes in metric modulations and other metric relationships. (Issue 92)
The <n> element represents an n dynamic. (Issue 52)
A single <note> element may now have both <cue> and <grace> child elements. (Issue 68)
The <open> element represents the open symbol, which looks like a circle. (Issue 44)
The <pf> element represents a pf dynamic. (Issue 52)
The <sfzp> element represents an sfzp dynamic. (Issue 52)
The <smear> element represents the tilde-shaped smear symbol used in brass notation. (Issue 44)
The <soft-accent> element indicates a soft accent that is not as heavy as a normal accent. It is often notated as <>. (Issue 131)
The <staff-divide> element represents staff division arrow symbols. (Issue 11)
The <symbol> element specifies a musical symbol using a canonical SMuFL glyph name. It is used when an occasional musical symbol is interspersed into text. (Issue 163)

New Attributes

The abbreviated and number attributes have been added to the <pedal> element. (Issue 102)
The bracket, parentheses, and size attributes have been added to the <accidental-mark> element. (Issue 218)
The hand attribute has been added to the <tap> element. (Issue 100)
The height and width attributes have been added to the <credit-image> and <image> elements. (Issue 3)
The id attribute has been added to the <accidental-mark>, <accordion-registration>, <arpeggiate>, <articulations>, <barline>, <beam>, <bracket>, <clef>, <coda>, <credit>, <credit-image>, <credit-words>, <damp>, <damp-all>, <dashes>, <direction>, <direction-type>, <dynamics>, <eyeglasses>, <fermata>, <figured-bass>, <frame>, <glissando>, <grouping>, <harmony>, <harp-pedals>, <image>, <key>, <lyric>, <measure>, <measure-style>, <metronome>, <non-arpeggiate>, <notations>, <note>, <octave-shift>, <ornaments>, <other-direction>, <other-notation>, <pedal>, <percussion>, <principal-voice>, <print>, <rehearsal>, <scordatura>, <segno>, <slide>, <slur>, <sound>, <string-mute>, <technical>, <tied>, <time>, <transpose>, <tuplet>, <wedge>, and <words> elements. (Issue 145)
The line-length attribute has been added to the <doit>, <falloff>, <plop>, and <scoop> elements. (Issue 44)
The parentheses and dashed-circle attributes have been added to the <stick> element. (Issue 85)
The print-leger attribute has been added to the <note> element. (Issue 184)
The smufl attribute has been added to the <accidental>, <accidental-mark>, <accidental-text>, and <key-accidental> elements. (Issue 109)
The smufl attribute has been added to the <arrow> and <stopped> elements. (Issue 79)
The smufl attribute has been added to the <coda> and <segno> elements. (Issue 84)
The smufl attribute has been added to the <elision> element. (Issue 101)
The smufl attribute has been added to the <glass> element. (Issue 80)
The smufl attribute has been added to the <notehead> element. (Issue 88, Issue 89, Issue 110)
The smufl attribute has been added to the <other-articulation>, <other-direction>, <other-dynamics>, <other-notation>, <other-ornament>, <other-percussion>, and <other-technical> elements. (Issue 107)
The smufl attribute has been added to the <pitched> element. (Issue 82)
The smufl attribute has been added to the <tremolo> element. (Issue 99)
The text attribute has been added to the <measure> element. (Issue 69)
The time-only attribute has been added to the <lyric> element. (Issue 151)

New Values

New values double-sharp-down, double-sharp-up, flat-flat-down, flat-flat-up, arrow-down, arrow-up, and other have been added to the accidental-value type, used by the <accidental>, <accidental-mark>, <accidental-text>, and <key-accidental> elements. (Issue 83)
New values drum stick and superball have been added to the beater-value type, used by the <beater> element. (Issue 85)
The slide brush on gong value has been added to the beater-value type, used by the <beater> element. (Issue 76)
The salzedo and upbow values have been added to the breath-mark-value type, used by the <breath-mark> element. (Issue 9)
The <caesura> element uses the new caesura-value type with values of normal, thick, short, curved, and single. An empty string value is included for compatibility with MusicXML 3.0. (Issue 9)
New values lotus flute and megaphone have been added to the effect type, used by the <effect> element. (Issue 73)
New values pentagon, hexagon, heptagon, octagon, nonagon, and decagon have been added to the enclosure-shape type, used by the enclosure attribute. (Issue 86)
New values double-angled, double-square, double-dot, half-curve, and curlew have been added to the fermata-shape type, used by the <fermata> element. (Issue 9)
New values glass harmonica and glass harp have been added to the glass-value type, used by the <glass> element. (Issue 81)
The belltree value has been added to the handbell-value type, used by the <handbell> element. (Issue 79)
New values Chinese tomtom, cuica, Indo-American tomtom, Japanese tomtom, and tabla have been added to the membrane type, used by the <membrane> element. (Issue 75)
New values agogo, bell tree, cencerro, jingle bells, and shell bells have been added to the metal type, used by the <metal> element. (Issue 78)
The chain rattle value has been added to the metal type, used by the <metal> element. (Issue 74)
New values jaw harp and musical saw have been added to the metal type, used by the <metal> element. (Issue 81)
The tam tam with beater value has been added to the metal type, used by the <metal> element. (Issue 76)
The circled value has been added to notehead-value type, used by the <notehead> element. (Issue 91)
The other value has been added to notehead-value type, used by the <notehead> element. (Issue 110)
The sostenuto value has been added to the pedal-type type, used by the type attribute of the <pedal> element. (Issue 102)
New values celesta, lithophone, steel drums, and tubaphone have been added to the pitched-value type, used by the <pitched> element. (Issue 82)
The plus value has been added to the <prefix> element. (Issue 94)
New values glockenspiel, gum, hammer, superball, and wound have been added to the stick-type type, used by the <stick-type> element. (Issue 85)
The grace-cue value has been added to the symbol-size type, used by the size attribute. (Issue 68)
New values back-slash, plus, and vertical have been added to the <suffix> element. (Issue 94)
The let-ring value has been added to the type attribute of the <tied> element. (Issue 142)
The grace-cue value has been added to the note-size-type type, used by the type attribute. (Issue 68)
The unmeasured value has been added to the tremolo-type type, used by the type attribute of the <tremolo> element. (Issue 99)
New values bamboo scraper, castanets with handle, football rattle, quijada, reco-reco, and whip have been added to the wood type, used by the <wood> element. (Issue 77)
The rainstick value has been added to the wood type, used by the <wood> element. (Issue 74)

Removed and Deprecated Features

The font-family, font-size, font-style, and font-weight attributes have been removed from the <extend> element. The <extend> element contains no text, and these attributes were added by mistake in MusicXML 1.1. (Issue 140)
The bezier-offset and bezier-offset2 attributes are deprecated as of MusicXML 3.1. (Issue 26)

Documentation Changes

MusicXML 3.1 made the following changes to the XSD and DTD schema documentation.

The DTD documentation for the <actual-notes> and <normal-notes> elements has been corrected to fix a typo. (Issue 138)
The XSD and DTD documentation for the <accordion-high>, <accordion-low>, and <accordion-middle> elements clarifies that the elements are omitted if no dots are present. (Issue 134)
The XSD and DTD documentation for the attack and release attributes and their interrelationship has been clarified. (Issue 58)
The XSD and DTD documentation for the bezier-x, bezier-y, bezier-x2, bezier-y2, bezier-offset, and bezier-offset2 attributes and their interrelationships has been clarified. (Issue 25, Issue 26)
The cancel complex type XSD documentation now describes the location attribute correctly. (Issue 18)
The <cue> element XSD and DTD documentation clarifies that the <cue> element indicates silent notes. (Issue 67)
The <direction> element XSD and DTD documentation clarifies the relationship between <direction> and <note> elements. (Issue 170)
The <falloff> element XSD documentation has been corrected to indicate the falloff comes after the note. (Issue 17)
The interchangeable complex type XSD documentation no longer refers to a non-existent parentheses attribute. (Issue 12)
The <key-octave> element XSD and DTD documentation clarifies the behavior of the cancel attribute. (Issue 126)
The multiple-rest complex type XSD documentation no longer refers to a non-existent type attribute. (Issue 15)
The note-type complex type XSD documentation now refers to 1024th to maxima instead of 256th to long. (Issue 16)
The number-level simple type XSD documentation now refers to an optional rather than implied value. (Issue 19)
The string-number simple type and <string> element XSD and DTD documentation clarifies how string numbers are ordered. (Issue 127)
The <tied> element XSD and DTD documentation clarifies how to represent different types of single-ended tie symbols. (Issue 142)
The <wavy-line> element XSD and DTD documentation now refers to <barline> rather than <measure> elements. (Issue 13)