Roles and instrumentation in performances

DDEX standards enable the communication of the roles specific contributions undertake in musical creations. Such role codes include for example Composer, Musician, Soloist and RecordingEngineer and many others (the full list is available from the knowledge base).

It is also possible to communicate the instrument(s) used by a contributor when plkaying such roles. A musician playing a violin and being a recording engineer, for instance, could be communicated as:

<Contributor>
  <ContributorPartyReference>P1</ContributorPartyReference>
  <Role>Soloist</Role>
  <Role>RecordingEngineer</Role>
  <InstrumentType>Violin</InstrumentType>
</Contributor>

 

However, it is not possible in the above example for the recipient of the message to determine whether the instrument that is communicated in the message has been used in the context of the contributor being a soloist or being a recording engineer (or both).

ERN 4.4 therefore adds the ability to communicate that any instrument that is communicated is being used in the context of the Role as follows:

<Contributor>
  <ContributorPartyReference>P1</ContributorPartyReference>
  <Role>
    <Value>Soloist</Value>
    <InstrumentType>Violin</InstrumentType>
  </Role>
  <Role>
    <Value>RecordingEngineer</Value>
  </Role>
</Contributor>

 

However, the Instrument tag can still be used directly inside the Contributor composite, as shown the first example above, for cases where there is no ambiguity as to what role an instrument applies to.

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