bach

Semantic music notation

About

bach is an open-source music notation that people and computers can easily read or write. It is entirely text-based and can be written in any text editor.

bach is different from other music notations because it is semantic, meaning it allows you to work with higher-level music constructs such as chords and scales without needing to worry about the details.

Eventually, with enough support through adoption and tooling, bach could be used to engrave sheet music, drive audio synthesizers, synchronize lighting shows and much more.

The project is in early development and constsantly changing. It should be considered experimental and too immature for production use.

Features

Supports semantic music elements such as chords and scales
Seamlessly synchronizes with audio or other data by minimizing the complexities around timing
Calculates and provides all of the timing values that are essential or useful for playback
Allows for alternative real-time representations of music or rhythms such as animation timelines
Easy to read or write for musicians, programmers and computers

Getting Started

Before moving on, please acknowledge that bach is a young experimental technology and is not supported by any tools you use.

Of course we are hopeful and optimistic that bach will grow to become a powerful tool for musicians and programmers alike.

In any case we are delighted that you’ve discovered bach and hope that you read on to become excited about its utility and potential.

If you are a musician and would like to use bach to notate music then head to the Guide page.

If you are a programmer and interested in using bach in your own project, you should also read the Guide section. From there we recommend reading the Syntax and Development pages.

Contact & Support

Create a GitHub issue for bug reports, feature requests, or general questions
Add a star on GitHub and/or follow the project!
Share with friends, colleagues, and teachers
Reach out to the lead developer personally

License

This project is licensed under the MIT license.

Legal Notice
The bach music notation project, its code, its tooling, and any supplemental content produced by the project’s author(s) is entirely open-source and not-for-profit.
The bach project’s author(s) and contributor(s) do not claim any legal right to the term “bach”, Johann Sebastian Bach’s musical works or any of their performances, recordings or renditions.
The name bach was chosen for the project because it sounds like “bash” (a popular scripting language), and, most importantly, celebrates one of the most influential musicians of all time.
All of the content contained in the bach project and this site has been been originally produced, and, to the best of one’s ability, intended to be unique in musical nature. Any similarity or infringement that’s perceived between copyrighted material and the content of this site, or the bach project as a whole, is purely coincidental.

Guide