This is the third and last part of a three-part series of
postings on computers and music in DDC 22. Part 1 examined explicit provisions in the schedules for treating this
topic area. Part 2 looked at where the
processes of creation, recording, and performance of music should be classed if
done by a computer. This part discusses
the classification of a representative sample of specific computer technologies
and products, as used with music. Specifically, it examines music notation software, digital music
players, digital jukebox software, digital audio editors, digital audio
workstations, music sequencers, and the musical instrument digital interface (MIDI).
As noted in previous posts, much of digital music technology
(both hardware and software) is multifunctional. Consistent with the principle of classing a
work on two subjects with the subject receiving fuller treatment—see section
5.7(B) of the DDC Introduction—our policy is to class multifunctional
technologies with the predominant technology. Statements in this posting about where to class a given technology may
need to be modified in specific situations, for example, if the work emphasizes
a different aspect of the technology than is assumed to be the default here. Where it is stated below that a topic classes
in, for example, both a computer science number and a music number, the
classifier must decide the disciplinary focus of the specific work when
assigning it a class number.
Music notation software (a.k.a. scorewriters), while often
including both recording and playback functions, focuses on producing printed
music. Examples of scorewriters include Finale®
and Sibelius®. Software for producing notated music classes
in 780.1480285 Musical notation—Computer
applications (built with 780.148
Musical notation plus notation T1–0285 Computer applications). This may appear to contravene the principle
of not adding multiple standard subdivisions to the same number. However, as section 8.6 of the DDC
Introduction explains, standard subdivisions can be added to notation for
standard subdivisions with changed or extended meanings (or as the schedules
describe it, notation from Table 1 that has been modified).
Digital music players (a.k.a. digital audio players)—for
example, MP3 players, iPods®—class in 621.38933 Sound reproducers (Communications engineering). (The engineering aspects of sound recording
and reproducing systems class together at 621.3893, with the recording aspects
in 621.38932 and the reproducing aspects in 621.38933.) The iTunes® application, commonly marketed as
a means of organizing the digital media played on an iPod, can also be used to
manage the playing of those media. However, iTunes does not class with the iPod in 621.38933. Where the
iPod is hardware, iTunes is software. Thus,
even though iTunes is the preeminent example of “digital jukebox software” and jukeboxes
class in 621.38933, iTunes belongs in computer science, not engineering, where
it classes in 006.5 Digital audio
(Computer science). We have also
mapped digital jukebox software to 780.28565
Digital audio (Music) (built with 780
Music plus notation T1–0285 Computer
applications plus 65 Digital audio
from 006.5, following the add instructions at T1–0285).
Another major digital music technology is the editing of
digital audio. Not surprisingly, the
software products that perform this function are known as digital audio editors
and include, for example, Sound Forge® and Audacity®. Digital audio editors have been mapped to 006.5 Digital audio and also to 781.34536 Microcomputer programs for
computer composition (built with 781.34
Computer composition plus 536,
from 005.36 Microcomputer programs,
following the add instructions under 781.344–781.346
Computer science aspects of computer composition).
Digital audio workstations and music sequencers, terms now often
used interchangeably, incorporate digital audio software into a system that can
record, edit, and play back digital audio, with editing as the predominant
function. Examples of digital audio
workstations include Cubase® and Pro Tools®. Consistent with the treatment of digital audio editors, digital audio
workstations class in 006.5 Digital
audio and 781.34416 Microcomputer systems
for computer composition (built with 781.34
Computer composition plus 416,
from 004.16 Microcomputers,
following the add instructions under 781.344–781.346
Computer science aspects of computer composition); both computer systems and comprehensive works
on hardware and programs in electronic data processing are in the class-here
note at 004 Data processing Computer science.
The protocol that permits digital devices (e.g., computers,
electronic musical instruments) to communicate with one another is called MIDI, Musical Instrument Digital Interface. As a communications protocol, MIDI classes in 784.19028546
Computer interfacing and communications for musical instruments (built with
784.19 Musical instruments, plus
notation T1–0285 Computer applications
plus 46 Computer interfacing and
communications from 004.6, following the add instructions at T1–0285).
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