MusicDNA is a file system that consists of an ontology that describes the underlying structure of the events that make up musical history – "who did what, where, and when" together with a set of user interfaces that allow subscribers to view, add and edit entries. MusicDNA is implemented using a specially developed version of

Topic Maps A topic map is a standard for the representation and interchange of knowledge, with an emphasis on the findability of information. Topic maps were originally developed in the late 1990s as a way to represent back-of-the-book index structures so ...

. MusicDNA uses "persistent subject identifiers" to refer to subjects or topics and an

ontology In metaphysics, ontology is the philosophical study of being, as well as related concepts such as existence, becoming, and reality. Ontology addresses questions like how entities are grouped into categories and which of these entities ...

or "conceptual reference model" to describe the relationships between those subjects.

History

MusicDNA began life as a website supporting BBC Radio's 18-hour programme,

The Unfinished Symphony ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in ...

, and was created by

Antony Pitts Antony Pitts (born 1969 in Farnborough, Kent) is an international composer, conductor, and producer. His compositions have been published by Faber Music, with CDs of choral music on Hyperion Records and other recordings on Harmonia Mundi, Naxos, ...

. This charted the history of Western music during previous millennia. The programme was broadcast from 0600 31 December 1999 to 0005 1 January 2000. The accompanying site used a novel navigational tool which presented each item in the broadcast as an element in a timeline view. In subsequent research Antony Pitts combined the horizontal time dimension with a vertical aesthetic journey, moving from inspiration to reception, to enable a multi-dimensional browsing interface. The site was picked by the

Royal Academy of Music The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is the oldest conservatoire in the UK, founded in 1822 by John Fane and Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. It received its royal charter in 1830 from King George IV with the support of the first Duke ...

Rewriting Musical History
as the starting point for its RAMline music index. Funded by HEIF3 and the Centre for Distance Education the project sought to offer a way of consolidating existing resources, making them accessible to students, staff, and the general public. In 2008 research was presented at several international conferences including Topic Maps 2008, International Association of Music Libraries Annual Conference 2008, and XML Holland 2008, and reached the attention of music journalists. The research team – including John Drinkwater and

Hannah Riddell Hannah Riddell (1855–1932) was an English woman who devoted her life to the care of patients with leprosy in Japan. Life Early life and her determination Hannah Riddell was born in 1855 in Barnet, then a village to the North of London. Her f ...

– then moved their research to a commercial environment working with development budget provided by Brussels-based Pensive SA. This quickly resulted in

musicGPS MusicDNA is a file system that consists of an ontology that describes the underlying structure of the events that make up musical history – "who did what, where, and when" together with a set of user interfaces that allow subscribers to view, a ...

, an application for the iPhone. released 30 September 2009, which records the details of what the user listened to, including time and place, and allows navigation and filtering of the resultant timeline. All data recorded is uploadable to the musicDNA database.

Notes

External links

musicDNA
{{DEFAULTSORT:Musicdna (Database) Online music and lyrics databases