<note>

The <note> element represents a musical note.

Parent

<measure> or <group>

Attributes

Attribute	Required	Type	Description
pitch	If the part’s type is "pitched" (default)	pitch	The note name. See Pitch format below.
sound	If the part’s type is "unpitched"	string	An instrument-specific sound code. See Unpitched Notation below.
octave	No	integer	The octave number, any integer. Only applies to pitch. Default is 0. Ignored when pitch carries a Thai octave modifier, see Conformance below.
id	No	token	Optional identifier, unique among all <note> elements in the document. Exists for a foreign-namespace extension to reference; ThaiMusicXML itself does not use it.

pitch and sound are mutually exclusive: a note uses one or the other depending on the type of its containing <part>. A type="lyric" part has no <note> elements at all, using <syllable> instead.

Example

<!-- Lower Do -->
<note pitch="1" octave="-1"/>
<note pitch="D" octave="-1"/>
<note pitch="ดฺ"/>

<!-- Middle Do -->
<note pitch="1" octave="0"/>
<note pitch="D" octave="0"/>
<note pitch="ด"/>

<!-- Higher Do -->
<note pitch="1" octave="1"/>
<note pitch="D" octave="1"/>
<note pitch="ดํ"/>

Pitch format

A pitch value is one base-note character, optionally followed by one Thai octave modifier.

Base notes

Each degree of the scale has three interchangeable single-character spellings. pitch="1", pitch="D", and pitch="ด" name the same note.

Number	Thai	Code point	Romanized
1	ด	U+0E14	D
2	ร	U+0E23	R
3	ม	U+0E21	M
4	ฟ	U+0E1F	F
5	ซ	U+0E0B	S
6	ล	U+0E25	L
7	ท	U+0E17	T

A document may use any of the three, but a generator should pick one spelling and keep to it throughout a file. The choice is not merely cosmetic: the spelling a file is written in is the spelling a renderer displays, so a file that mixes them prints mixed. See Rendering below.

A romanized base note may be written in either case. pitch="d" and pitch="D" are the same note, and case carries no meaning, so a renderer displays whichever case it prefers rather than the one the file happens to use. Uppercase is the default.

Thai octave modifiers

Modifier	Thai name	Code point	Effect	Example
ํ	Nikhahit	U+0E4D	Raise one octave	ดํ = ด up one octave
ฺ	Pinthu	U+0E3A	Lower one octave	ทฺ = ท down one octave

The modifiers attach to any of the three spellings, so 1ํ, Dํ, and ดํ are all valid and all mean the same note.

The code points are given because both modifiers are combining characters. In a rendered table they sit on top of whatever precedes them and cannot be told apart by eye from any of several lookalikes, and they cannot be copied reliably out of a web page. Match on the numbers.

Unicode normalization is not a concern here. Thai has no canonical compositions, so ดํ is the two code points U+0E14 U+0E4D under NFC, under NFD, and as written. A processor does not need a normalization pass before matching a pitch value, and adding one changes nothing.

Unpitched notation

For percussion and other non-pitched instruments, <part type="unpitched"> notes carry sound in place of pitch. sound is a free-form, instrument-specific code. Document what its values mean with an <annotation> inside the part’s <section-ref>.

<section-ref section="s1">
  <annotation>0 = ฉิ่ง / 1 = ฉับ</annotation>
  <line number="1">
    <measure number="1">
      <rest/><note sound="0"/><rest/><note sound="1"/>
    </measure>
  </line>
</section-ref>

Rendering

A note displays in the spelling the file is written in, and an unpitched note’s sound displays verbatim. A Thai octave modifier, whether written literally in pitch or implied by octave, displays as a small dot rather than as the literal นิคหิต/พินทุ shape. See Inside a measure, Octave marks, and Octaves beyond the Thai spellings.

Conformance

• pitch must be one of the seven base-note characters in any of the three spellings, optionally followed by one Thai octave modifier. Validators must reject any other value.
• A romanized base note may be written in upper or lower case. Both are valid and mean the same note.
• When pitch carries a Thai octave modifier (nikhahit ํ or pinthu ฺ), that modifier determines the octave. An octave attribute on the same <note> is ignored.
• Validators should warn rather than reject when octave appears alongside a Thai octave modifier. The combination is redundant, not contradictory.
• When pitch has no Thai octave modifier (numeric, romanized, or unmodified Thai), octave applies as normal, defaulting to 0 when absent.
• octave is not limited to -1, 0, or 1. Values outside that range have no distinct Thai-script spelling, since there is only one nikhahit and one pinthu. The octave value stays authoritative for playback whatever a renderer chooses to display. See Octaves beyond the Thai spellings.
• octave may appear on a <note> that uses sound. It has no effect there: sound codes are instrument-specific and not organized into octaves. Validators should warn, since the attribute is being discarded.
• id, when present, must be unique among all <note> elements in the document.