Epic Music!
ABC notation is a shorthand standard for representing music, commonly used to record and share traditional folk tunes. Each tune has a header and some notes.
Common header elements:
X:
index number, required in some software [e.g.X:1
]T:
title [e.gT: Happy Birthday
]M:
meter, required [e.g.M:C
,M:4/4
,M:3/4
]L:
default note length [e.g.L:1/2
,L:1/4
,L:1/8
]Q:
tempo [e.g.Q:120
,Q:1/8=120
,Q:1/4=60
]K:
key signature, required [e.g.K:G
,K:Gm
]V:
voice, can set the clef [e.g.V:1 name=Violin
,V:2 name=Cello clef=bass
]
Common notation elements:
- bottom octave
CDEFGAB
, top octavecdefgab
[e.g.C
= middle C] z
rest,
down an octave,'
up an octave [e.g.C,
orc'
]^
sharps,_
flats [e.g.^c
or_c
]- make note longer by multiplying number, or shorter by a
/
dividing number [e.g.a2
ora/2
] - notes separated by spaces will not have beams, those together will [e.g.
a b c
versusabc
] |
barline,|]
double bar,|:
repeats:|
Epic Music reads Samuel Butler's translations of the Iliad and Odyssey as if it was ABC notation, a simple plain text music format. The editor is created using abcjs, which renders the ABC in musical notation and generates MIDI sound playback (full functionality only on Chromium / Chrome browser). Click the Edit button to show the ABC notation, and try modifying the Epic Music!