Formal Semantics for Music Notation control Flow

Music notation includes a specification of control flow, which governs the order in which the score is read using constructs such as repeats and endings. Music theory provides only an informal description of control flow notation and its interpretation, but interactive music systems need unambiguous models of the relationships between the static score and its performance. A framework is introduced to describe music control flow semantics using theories of formal languages and compilers. A formalization of control flow answers several critical questions: Are the control flow indications in a score valid? What do the control flow indications mean? What is the mapping from performance location to static score location? Conventional notation is extended to handle practical problems, and an implementation, Live Score Display, is offered as a component for interactive music display.