A comparison of POM and ABC format

POM: a Protocol for Online Music

The Morris Dancing Discussion List ( MDDL) originally exchanged morris tunes via the POM which was created by Matthew Wright (M.Wright@soton.ac.uk). POM is easy to email, and encoding/decoding POM is pretty quick. (A few skilled musicians are said to be able to hum the tune if the POM is read to them over a phone.) Unfortunately there are no machine-based interpreters available for it.

This is a look at the tune ``Orange in Bloom'' from the village of Sherborne as given in Lionel Bacon's A Handbook of Morris Dances.

in Matthew Wright's POM:

tune = The Orange in Bloom
tradition = Sherborne
source = Sharp manuscripts via Bacon
sequence = 1/2 A (AB3)4 (AC2)4 A
time = 6/8
key = 1x
default duration = quaver (eighth note)

{A} 0 2 0  -1 2 3 | 4 6 4  3+ 4 | 2 0 0  -1 2 3 | 4 2 2  2+. :||

{B} 4 3 4- 5-  6+ 4 | 3 2 3   4 5 6 | 7 6 4  3 2 3 |
       4 3 2  0+ -1 | 0 2 0  -1 2 3 | 4 6 4   3+ 4 |
      2 0 0  -1 2 3 | 4 2 2  2+. ||

{C, time = 4/4} 4 3 4 5  6+ 4+ | 3 2 3+  4 5 6+ | 7 6 4+  3 2 3+ |
4 3 2+  0+. -1 | {time = 6/8} 0 2 0  -1 2 3 | {etc as A}

in Chris Walshaw's ABC (version 1.3):

M:6/8
X:1
T:Orange in Bloom
C:
S:Bacon (CJS MSS)
N:
A:Sherborne
O:English
R:Jig
P:A/2(AB$^3$)$^4$(AC$^3$)$^4$A
K:G
I:speed 450
P:A
|:\
EGE      DGA   | BdB   A2B   | GEE   DGA   | BGG   G3   :|
P:B
BAB/2c/2 d2B   | AGA   Bcd   | edB   AGA   | BAG   E2D  |\
EGE      DGA   | BdB   A2B   | GEE   DGA   | B2G   G3   ||
M:4/4
P:C
I:speed 150
BA Bc    d2 B2 | AG A2 Bc d2 | ed B2 AG A2 | BA G2 E3 D |\
M:6/8
I:speed 450
EGE      DGA   | BdB   A2B   | GEE   DGA   | BGG   G3   ||

A gif made from the output of abc2mtex is visible below:
[Musical score of Orange in Bloom, Sherborne]
Here is a compressed sound file (80 kbytes) produced by playabc. As noted here, this is not an efficient way to transfer the sound over the network because the source code is about 400 bytes and the uncompressed .au file is about 400 kilobytes.

Note that the sound produced from this abc file does not convey the feeling that a good morris musician would give to the dancers. This standard notation does not give the machine any idea where to put the emphasis. A morris musician will play the tune such as might be written with more 16th notes and dotted 8th notes. These can easily be encoded in the abc format. This makes the output sound better, but nothing can replace a live musician for dancing the morris.

Back to the WWW Morris Music page.

Steve Allen <sla@ucolick.org>