A Musical Web
I’ve been thinking a lot about semantic markup lately and why it’s important.
In fact, I recently wrote an article entitled Semantics — Why Bother? on this very subject for Accessites. That started me thinking about XHTML and schemas in general and why it can sometimes be hard to get the concept of a semantic information system across.
Most of the “XML for absolute beginners
” articles that I’ve seen that try to explain the principles by using the “recipe analogy”. I don’t know about you but I’m getting a little tired of seeing the geek’s equivalent to the Good Housekeeping cookbook. Added to which, no real cook ever uses, or even thinks about, a recipe in the way that it’s described in these articles. So I began to wonder if there was a better analogy. Or perhaps even a real schema that is well known, widely used and generally understood.
And the first thing that popped into my head was “musical notation
“.
Think about it for a minute.
This is a universally recognised method for conveying audio information via paper that has been around for hundreds of years. When Mozart needed to convey the symphonies inside his head to other musicians, he used musical notation to communicate it - the notes, the pitch, the time signature, tempo and dynamics. All using a standard schema, or markup, that has been in use since the 14th century.
At its most basic, a piece of music that has been transcribed in this fashion can then be performed on the violin, on the trumpet, sung or even played using a piece of paper and a comb. Yet each of these instruments produces music in a completely different fashion. The notation does not tell the musician how to draw the bow across the violin’s strings, which valve keys to press on the trumpet or how relaxed the vocal chords must be to produce a given note. Musical notation merely relays information about the music. It does not relay the music (the audio data) itself and relies upon the musician to interpet (parse) and play (render) this information in the most suitable manner for his or her instrument. Any number of people can play the same piece of music simultaneously using different techniques or instruments and the end result will (with practice) be heard as a single recognisable tune that will not vary significantly over time.
This is the model that the Web needs to use.
Forget recipes. Think music!