Chronicle: Representation of Complex Time Structures

Chronicle is a novel open source system for representing structured data involving time, such as music. It offers an XML-based file format, object models for internal representation in various programming languages, and software libraries and tools for reading and writing XML and for data transformations. Chronicle defines basic blocks for representing timebased information using events, a hierarchy of groups and instantiable templates. It supports two modes of timing: local timing within a group and association with other elements. The built-in mechanism for resolving time references can be used to implement both timescale mappings and tagging of information. Chronicle aims to be a powerful and flexible foundation on which new file formats and software can be built. Chronicle focuses on structure and timing, but leaves the actual content free to choose. Thus formator softwaredevelopers can specify their own domain-model. This makes it possible to make representations for different types of musical information (scores, performance data, ...) in different styles or cultures (CMN, non-western, contemporary, ...), but also for other domains like choreography, scheduling, task management, and so on. It is also ideal for structured tagging of audio and multimedia (movie subtitles, karaoke, synchronisation, ...) and for representing ”internal” data used in music algorithms. The system is organized in four levels of increasing complexity. Software developed for a specific level and domain will also accept lower level data, while users can choose to represent data in a higher level and use Chronicle tools to reduce the level.