mei-friend package for Atom

This package for the Atom editor is a friendly companion that helps you edit and improve digital score encodings in MEI format. It makes extensive use of the fantastic engraving engine Verovio. This package started on the code of the mei-tools-atom package by Sienna M. Wood and the nCoda team.

Current Features

Display

• As-you-type rendering of MEI into music notation with Verovio.
• Scale notation (zoom in or out) for ease of viewing (CMD/CTRL +/– or with CMD/CTRL mouse wheel).
• Update notation to current cursor position in MEI encoding.
• Breaks options (automatic system breaks, encoded system breaks, encoded system and page breaks, none).
• Music font drop down selector.
• Element under cursor in MEI code is highlighted in notation window
  • This feature works by matching xml:ids, so if you have no xml:ids on your elements you will have no highlighting in your notation.
  • If the current element has no xml:id, the parent <staff> and then <measure> will be checked for an xml:id and will be highlighted if one is found.
• Click on a note or other rendered notation element to take the cursor to the associated place in the MEI code
  • Relies on xml:ids, so elements without xml:ids do not provide this feature.
  • Select one or more elements in the Verovio panel (CTRL + click for multiple notes, Mac OSX: CMD + click).
  • Select chord instead of note with ALT + click.
• Refactor the MEI encoding by running it through Verovio, adding xml:ids to elements without ids (or optionally removing all unused ids with ALT ).
• Speed mode checkbox: only the visible page is sent to Verovio to improve GUI responsiveness and reduce rendering duration. Works currently only with the breaks option set to System (line) and Page and System (encoded). (Known issues are: time spanning elements with @tstamps reaching into or out from current page and all time spanning elements starting before and ending after the current page are not shown.)
• Show/hide help panel with all keyboard shortcuts (?)
• Navigation within the notation window by arrow keys (combined with CMD and CTRL for measure-wise and page-wise stepping).
• Page navigation with keyboard shortcuts (SPACE, PAGEDOWN: next page; SHIFT-SPACE, PAGEUP: previous page; HOME, CMD/CTRL + UP: first page; END, CMD/CTRL + DOWN: last page)

Editing functionality

• Insert slur (S), tie (T) with placement above by default or below with CTRL.
• Insert hairpin spanning two selected notes (H crescendo, SHIFT H decrescendo).
• Insert glissando (G), arpeggio (A) at selected notes.
• Insert fermata to selected note (F above by default, below and inverted with CTRL).
• Insert directives (I), dynamics (D), tempo indications (T) to selected notes (above by default, below with CTRL).
• Insert pedal down (P) or up (CTRL P).
• Insert turn, mordent (non-default forms with SHIFT, above by default, below with CTRL).
• Insert trill (with @extender="true", if two notes selected, above by default, below with CTRL).
• Insert beam on selected notes with identical parent (two selected notes sufficient)
• Insert octave element from first selected note to last selected note within same staff (O 8 tones above, CTRL O 8 tones below, ALT O 15 tones above, ALT CTRL O 15 tones below)
• Invert placement (above/below) (@place for accid, artic, dir, dynam, etc.) and curvature (for slur, tie, etc.) (X).
• Invert @stem.dir (up/down) for selected notes/chords or elements containing those, e.g., beams (X).
• Invert @num.place (above/below) for selected tuplet numbers (X)
• Delete control elements with BACKSPACE or DELETE key (and accid, artic, clef).
• Delete selected beam (BACKSPACE or DELETE)
• Delete octave element (BACKSPACE DELETE), resets notes between @startid and @endid
• Toggle (add/remove) articulation on notes, chords, beams:
  • staccato SHIFT S
  • tenuto SHIFT T
  • marcato SHIFT O
  • accent SHIFT V
  • staccatissimo SHIFT I
• Move rests (rest, mRest, multiRest) and notes up/downwards (SHIFT + up/down, CMD/CTRL + SHIFT + up/down)
• Move notes, chords, rests to next staff above/below (ALT + CMD/CTRL + UP/DOWN)

Code manipulation utilities

• Remove @accid.ges when @accid is present (SHIFT + C)
• Renumber measures (counts successive measures with @metcon="false" as one, counts multiple endings with same numbering, does not increment at measures with invisible right bar line)
  • Test renumbering SHIFT + R, output to console, no manipulation done.
  • Execute renumbering CTRL-SHIFT + R

Installation

This package is published to the official Atom registry and can be installed by following their general instructions. If prompted to install dependencies, click 'yes' and allow installation to complete.

Once installed, use the package by following these steps:

1. Launch Atom and open an MEI file (menu item File > Open...).
   • Example encodings Beethoven WoO57 Andante favori
   • TROMPA Music Encodings in MEI 4.0.1
2. To display the notation, use the menu item Packages > MEI Friend > Show/Hide Notation, or press Alt Cmd M (Mac), or Alt Win M (Windows, Linux).

Validating your MEI encoding

Only valid MEI can be rendered into notation with Verovio. To ensure your MEI is valid, an XML validation package is recommended.

Acknowlegements

This package started on the code of the mei-tools-atom package by Sienna M. Wood and the nCoda team. Thanks to Laurent Pugin and the MEI community for all their work on Verovio. Thanks also to Laurent for making Verovio available as a Node package and for constant basic support on Verovio.