Werckmeisterjs NPM

An open source Sheet Music MIDI Compiler

Werckmeister compiles sheet music source code into a MIDI file.

Vision

Consider the beauty of lead sheet music: you write a melody and some chords, add some remarks, which instruments and which style.

Thats it.

This is the idea behind Werckmeister. Of course it can not replace a musician or a band. But it offers you a tool to write melodies and chords then you can define how to interpret the chords along your melody or even define your own interpretation templates.

What it wants to be

a fast and easy way to create lead sheet music
that tool in your toolchain, between the initial idea of an piece and developing the details in your favourite Sequencer/DAW
a way to create music without a Graphical User Interface
a tool which relies only on human readable files

What it doesn't want to be

a replacement to your favourite Sequencer/DAW
a scorewriter software
a programming language

Syntax

Tracks and Voices

A Werckmeister piece is built of tracks and voices. A track can have an arbitray number of voices, but at least there has to be one voice. A track is embraced by brackets ([]), a voice by curled braces ({}). The shortest valid Werckmeister piece would be: [{}]

Notation

The syntax is loosely inspired by the lilypond notaion syntax. A note is written by letter followed by a number for its duration. If a note has no duration, the last given duration will be used.

a simple scale with quartes and eights

Templates

Instead of writing absolute notes, you use relative degrees. For example I4 means the first degree as a quarter note.

This template playes the Ist IIIrd Vth and the VIIth degree as quarter note. It will be played two bars. Starting with a C7 followed by a C minor 7 chord This template playes the Ist, IIIrd, Vth and the VIIth degree as quarter note. It will be used for two bars. Starting with a C7 followed by a C minor 7 chord.

Installation

Build from sources

Dependencies

boost library, links against:
- unit_test_framework
- filesystem
- program_options
- locale
- asio
rtmidi
rapidjson

Prerequisites

install the boost library
install cmake
clone the repository https://github.com/SambaGodschynski/werckmeister.git
cd into werckmeister

If your boost library is not located at a common search path (e.g. "/usr/local/lib"), make sure that the environment variable "BOOST_ROOT" is set. (see https://cmake.org/cmake/help/v3.15/module/FindBoost.html)