Encoding and publishing critical editions with MedMel (with a special focus on Romance language lyrics)

In recent years, medieval musicology has experienced significant growth in the digital realm, leading to the creation of large databases such as the Cantus Database,1 the Corpus Monodicum,2 the Troubadour Melodies Database3 and Cantigas de Santa Maria for Singers.4 Additionally, software applications for the optical recognition of medieval music notation have emerged.5 These projects employ different encoding formats and practices, each tailored to specific needs related to the level of detail required, visualization tools used and data input efficiency. The most widely used standard for encoding medieval music is Volpiano—a font that displays melodies in modern stemless notation.6 Yet, today, scholarly efforts are increasingly projected towards MEI (Music Encoding Initiative)—a highly expressive XML standard.7 MEI’s ‘neume module’ is specifically designed to encode medieval music.8 Software like Gregorio, available online through the Illuminare tool, is optimal for Gregorian chant, while Neon.js—a web application that allows users to trace the notation onto a manuscript image and visualize an MEI file—can also be used to transcribe medieval notation.9 The options available for traditional paper editions, however, are limited: desktop editor software for modern Western notation is typically used to display neutral stemless notation. The main challenge for all these tools is the balance between the steepness of the user’s learning curve, the time required for encoding, the expressivity and accuracy of the encoded information, and the quality and flexibility of the visualization. Each tool has its strengths and weaknesses according to the specific purpose for which it was developed.