The DV Language: A Textual System for Music, Movement, Theater, and Time-Based Arts

The DV Language: A Textual System for Music, Movement, Theater, and Time-Based Arts

A general framework for encoding sound, rhythm, and action in plain text

By Ronen Kolton Yehuda (MKR: Messiah King RKY)

1. Overview

The DV Language (David’s Violin Language) is a text-based notation system for describing anything that happens in time:

Music: melody, harmony, rhythm, sound design
Movement: dance, gestures, choreography
Theater: cues, staging, lighting, props, camera directions
Performance: DJ sets, live electronics, timing of events
Machines: signals, frequencies, and commands for computers, AI, and robots

Instead of relying on graphical staff, diagrams, or proprietary formats, DV Language expresses all of these as plain text, with clear rules that are:

Understandable by humans
Easy to parse by software
Flexible across different natural languages and alphabets

The article that follows this one focuses specifically on music notation in DV Language. This introductory article explains the general concept and architecture that connects music to the broader DV ecosystem.

2. Why a textual language for time-based arts?

Most time-based arts use visual systems:

Staff notation for music
Choreography symbols and diagrams for dance
Blocking notes and scripts for theater
Automation and control timelines in software

These systems are powerful, but they are not always:

Easy to type on a regular keyboard
Easy to share in a simple text message or email
Easy for AI and robots to process without conversion

DV Language is designed to answer a simple question:

What if all these time-based elements could be written in one consistent, simple textual format, understood by both humans and machines?

This makes it possible to:

Teach and learn using text-only materials
Store and version-control scores and choreographies like code
Feed the same representation into AI models, educational tools, and robotic systems

3. Core idea: Events on a timeline

At the heart of DV Language is a simple abstraction:

An event = something that happens at a certain time, possibly with a duration, a “who,” a “where,” and a “how”.

In different domains, an event might be:

A musical note being played
A dancer lifting an arm
A light turning on in a theater
A camera changing angle
A robot moving from point A to point B

DV Language organizes events into lines and bars (often called “DV boxes”):

A line represents a timeline for one role, instrument, body part, or layer
A bar represents a segment of time (like a bar in music, or a time slice in choreography)
Symbols and tags inside the bar describe what happens during that slice

This makes time explicit and structured, while keeping everything in text form.

4. Domains of DV Language

4.1 Music

Music is the first and most mature domain of DV Language and the focus of the next article.

DV Language for music encodes:

Notes (pitch, octave, duration)
Bars and meter using | and ||
Rhythm, phrases, and structure
Extensions for dynamics, instruments, and expression

It is suitable for:

Education (scales, exercises, simple pieces)
Composition and sketching
AI and software that need a clean, textual representation of music

4.2 Dance and body movement

For dance and movement, events describe what the body does:

Which limb or body part (e.g., left arm, right leg, head, torso)
What action (lift, step, turn, bend, jump)
Optional space and direction (forward, backward, left, right, up, down, angle)

Lines can represent:

A single dancer
A specific body part
A group or ensemble

Bars and time segments keep the movement synchronized with music or with other performers.

4.3 Theater and staging

In theater, DV Language can encode cues such as:

Lighting changes
Entrance and exit of characters
Props usage
Stage positions and blocking
Camera directions for filmed or hybrid productions

Each line can belong to:

A technical department (lights, sound, video)
A character or actor
A camera or device

The idea is to make the entire staging readable as text, aligned with time, and compatible with software tools.

4.4 Frequencies, signals, and machines

DV Language can also describe frequencies, envelopes, and control data, such as:

Pure tones and frequency sweeps
Filter changes, effects parameters
Robot movement commands over time
Sensor triggers and responses

Here, events may include:

Frequency or parameter values
Durations and transitions
Channels or device identifiers

This allows the same framework used for artistic notation to also act as a specification language for machines and AI.

5. Human and machine readability

DV Language is intentionally designed as a dual-language:

For humans
- Clear syntax, mnemonic names (Do, Re, Mi, or language equivalents)
- Time and structure visible through bars, lines, and separators
- Multilingual support (Latin, Hebrew, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Russian, etc.)
For machines
- Regular patterns, predictable syntax
- Easy tokenization and parsing
- Stable enough to use as a storage and interchange format

This combination makes DV Language suitable for:

Teachers, students, performers
Developers, tool builders, AI researchers
Hybrid workflows where human and AI collaborate

6. Multilingual and multi-script design

DV Language is not tied to one alphabet or culture.

The same structure (bars, durations, timelines) can be written with:

Latin letters (Do, Re, Mi / C, D, E)
Hebrew (דו, רה, מי, פה…)
Chinese syllables (哆, 来, 咪…)
Korean (도, 레, 미…)
Japanese (ド, レ, ミ…)
Russian (До, Ре, Ми…)

This is important because:

Music and performance are global
Education often takes place in native languages
AI and software should not force everyone into one script

DV Language allows local note names and terms on top of a shared structural logic.

7. Relationship to traditional notation and scripts

DV Language is not meant to erase existing systems. Instead, it is a parallel layer that can coexist with:

Staff notation for music
Standard choreography or theater notation
Technical cue sheets and automation files

It can act as:

A bridge between human-focused and machine-focused formats
A teaching aid that simplifies early stages of learning
A compact representation for storage, collaboration, and analysis

Teachers, composers, choreographers, and directors can keep using their familiar tools while having DV Language as an additional textual channel.

8. Applications and use cases

Some concrete ways DV Language can be used:

Education
- Text-based exercises and homework
- Simple scripts for school performances
- Multilingual teaching materials
Software and AI
- Shared format between composition tools and learning models
- Training data for AI that generates music or movement
- Interface language between human instructions and robotic actions
Production and staging
- Consistent cue sheets combining music, lights, and movement
- Version-controlled scripts shared by teams
- Easy diffing and annotation, similar to code reviews
Research and experimentation
- Studying patterns in music and movement across cultures
- Prototyping new interactive systems
- Connecting symbolic information to sensors and real-time control

9. Evolution of the system

DV Language is modular and evolving.

The current, more detailed specification for music notation is one of its main pillars and is described in the following article. Other domains—dance, theater, control signals—are being refined with the same principles:

Plain text
Clear timing and structure
Human–machine symmetry
Multilingual flexibility

The long-term vision is a unified textual ecosystem where:

A musical phrase, a dance phrase, and a light cue can all be written, aligned, and understood within one family of notation.
Humans, computers, and AI agents can work on the same “script” from different angles.

10. Collaboration

DV Language is an original and expanding framework. I invite serious collaborators—musicians, educators, choreographers, theater professionals, technologists, and AI researchers—who see value in a shared textual language for time-based arts and would like to:

Implement it in tools and software
Use it in teaching and training
Explore it in artistic, scientific, or technological projects

The next article, “The DV Language: A Textual Music Notation for Humans, Computers, and AI,” dives into the musical core, with concrete rules and examples that can be used immediately in practice.

The DV Language 📜 - Ronen Kolton Yehuda

The DV language: David’s Violin Language

The Integration of DV Language with AI: From Teaching Instruments to Creative Machines 🎶🤖

Music Theory with DV Language 📘 By Ronen Kolton Yehuda (MKR: Messiah King RKY) with the assistance of AI

Study Music with DV Language & DVLMS – DV Language Music School — A New Way to Learn Music for All Ages & Levels

The DV Language Composer Family - Ronen Kolton Yehuda

DVLCO – DV Language Composer Orchestra (Demo v1)

DVLCO – DV Language Composer ORCHESTRA Demo v1

Digital Music Instruments i developed - Messiah King RKY (Ronen Kolton Yehuda) — Digital and Hybrid Musical Instruments Catalogue

Authored by: Ronen Kolton Yehuda (MKR: Messiah King RKY)

Check out my blogs:

Substack: ronenkoltonyehuda.substack.com

Blogger: ronenkoltonyehuda.blogspot.com

Medium: medium.com/@ronenkoltonyehuda

The DV Language: A Textual Music Notation for Humans, Computers, and AI

A practical framework for writing, teaching, and processing music in plain text

By Ronen Kolton Yehuda (MKR: Messiah King RKY)

1. Introduction

Traditional staff notation is powerful, but it is not always intuitive for beginners, and it is not naturally “native” to computers, code editors, or AI systems.

The DV Language (David Violin Language) is a textual music notation system I developed to solve this gap. It allows music to be written, read, taught, and processed in plain text, in a way that is:

Easy to type on any keyboard
Easy to parse by software and AI
Flexible for multiple languages and scripts
Consistent across instruments, tempos, and styles

This article focuses on the music notation core of DV Language — the part that describes notes, time, rhythm, and simple examples that can be implemented in software, used in education, or shared in collaboration.

2. What Is DV Language for Music?

DV Language for music is a symbolic, line-based system that represents music with:

Note names (e.g., Do / Re / Mi or their equivalents in different languages)
Octave numbers (1, 2, 3, …)
Duration codes (Q, H, W, E, etc.)
Bars separated by | and phrase endings by ||
Optional extensions for dynamics, articulation, instruments, and more

A basic DV note looks like this:

Do1Q

This can be read as:

Do – the pitch (note name)
1 – the octave
Q – the duration (Quarter note)

Notes inside a bar are separated by semicolons ;, and bars are framed by | at the beginning and end of each bar. A phrase or example ends with a double bar ||.

3. Design Principles

DV Language is built on several guiding principles:

Plain Text First
Everything should be writable in a simple text file, a code editor, or even a chat message. No special fonts, no graphical staff required.
Human-Readable and Machine-Readable
A musician should be able to read it with minimal explanation, and a computer should be able to parse it with simple rules.
Language-Independent
The system supports different naming schemes (Do Re Mi, C D E, etc.) and multiple scripts (Latin, Hebrew, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Russian, and more).
Structured by Bars and Time
Time is organized in bars, just like in traditional notation. DV makes bar structure explicit using | and ||.
Scalable
The same notation can be used for simple exercises, full pieces, orchestral scores, and also as a data format for AI and digital tools.

4. Basic Building Blocks

4.1 Notes: Name + Octave + Duration

The basic DV symbol for a note is:

<Name><Octave><DurationCode>

Examples:

Do1Q – Do, octave 1, quarter note
Mi2H – Mi, octave 2, half note
Sol3W – Sol, octave 3, whole note

You can use different note naming systems:

Solfège (Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Si)
Letter names (C, D, E, F, G, A, B)
Native-language equivalents

4.2 Duration Codes

Standard duration codes may include:

W – Whole note
H – Half note
Q – Quarter note
E – Eighth note
S – Sixteenth note

(And additional values or fractions if needed.)

4.3 Bars and Time Signatures

For a 4/4 bar, the total duration of each bar must sum to four quarter notes (or equivalent). In DV Language, we mark bars as:

| at the beginning and end of each bar
|| at the end of a phrase or example

Example of two bars in 4/4:

| Do1Q ; Re1Q ; Mi1Q ; Fa1Q |
| Sol1Q ; La1Q ; Si1Q ; Do2Q ||

Here each bar contains four quarter notes (4 × Q), and the phrase ends with ||.

5. A Simple Example: C Major Scale in 4/4

To illustrate the system, here is a C major (Do major) ascending scale written in DV Language using solfège names and 4/4 bars:

| Do1Q ; Re1Q ; Mi1Q ; Fa1Q |
| Sol1Q ; La1Q ; Si1Q ; Do2Q ||

This can be interpreted as:

Bar 1: Do, Re, Mi, Fa – each a quarter note
Bar 2: Sol, La, Si, Do (next octave) – each a quarter note
End of the scale is marked with ||.

6. Multilingual Note Names

One of the important goals of DV Language is to respect different musical cultures and languages, while keeping the underlying structure consistent.

Below is the same C major scale (still 4/4, same rhythm) written with different note naming systems.

6.1 Latin / English Solfège

| Do1Q ; Re1Q ; Mi1Q ; Fa1Q |
| Sol1Q ; La1Q ; Si1Q ; Do2Q ||

6.2 Chinese (哆来咪)

| 哆1Q ; 来1Q ; 咪1Q ; 发1Q |
| 唆1Q ; 拉1Q ; 西1Q ; 哆2Q ||

6.3 Korean (도레미)

| 도1Q ; 레1Q ; 미1Q ; 파1Q |
| 솔1Q ; 라1Q ; 시1Q ; 도2Q ||

6.4 Japanese (Katakana)

| ド1Q ; レ1Q ; ミ1Q ; ファ1Q |
| ソ1Q ; ラ1Q ; シ1Q ; ド2Q ||

6.5 Russian

| До1Q ; Ре1Q ; Ми1Q ; Фа1Q |
| Соль1Q ; Ля1Q ; Си1Q ; До2Q ||

6.6 Hebrew

| דו1Q ; רה1Q ; מי1Q ; פה1Q |
| סול1Q ; לה1Q ; סי1Q ; דו2Q ||

In each case:

The bar structure remains identical.
The octave numbers and durations remain identical.
Only the note names change to match the language and musical tradition.

This makes DV Language a useful bridge between local notation habits and a unified, machine-readable format.

7. Encoding a Short Melody

Here is a short melody written in DV Language, with a clear bar structure in 4/4 time.

Notice that:

Each bar begins and ends with |.
Each bar’s content sums to one full 4/4 measure.
The phrase ends with ||.

| Mi1Q ; Re1Q ; Do1Q ; Re1Q |
| Mi1Q ; Mi1Q ; Mi1H ||
| Re1Q ; Re1Q ; Re1H ||
| Mi1Q ; Sol1Q ; Sol1H ||
| Mi1Q ; Re1Q ; Do1Q ; Re1Q |
| Mi1Q ; Mi1Q ; Mi1H ||
| Re1Q ; Re1Q ; Mi1Q ; Re1Q |
| Do1W ||

In this example:

Q and H (quarter and half notes) are combined so that each bar respects the 4/4 structure.
The final bar has a single Do1W (whole note), filling the entire bar.

This kind of representation is easy to:

Play manually (reading from text)
Import into a script or composition tool
Use as training data for an AI model

8. Extensions: Rests, Dynamics, and More (Conceptual)

While this article focuses on basic note representation, DV Language also allows for extensions, for example:

Rests (e.g., R1Q for a quarter rest in octave-neutral form, or another symbol agreed upon)
Dynamics and accents (e.g., suffixes or tags for p, f, sfz, legato, staccato)
Instrument tags (e.g., marking lines for piano right hand, left hand, violin, percussion, etc.)
Tempo and metadata in a simple header format

These extensions are designed to stay text-based and consistent, so that every part of a piece — from notes to interpretation hints — can be encoded, shared, and processed.

9. Use Cases: Where DV Language Can Help

DV Language for music can serve several practical roles:

Music Education
- Writing simple exercises and scales in plain text
- Helping beginners focus on note names, octaves, and rhythm before dealing with staff notation
- Supporting multilingual teaching environments
Digital Tools and AI
- Serving as an intermediate representation between human-readable music and internal data structures
- Providing a clean, regular format for training or testing AI systems that generate or analyze music
Composition and Sketching
- Allowing composers to sketch ideas quickly in any text editor
- Enabling easy version control and collaboration (copy-paste, diff, comments)
Accessibility and Cross-Platform Use
- Making it easier to share music via chat, email, or code repositories
- Freeing notation from graphical constraints and specific software

10. Collaboration and Future Development

DV Language is intentionally modular and evolving. The core specification for music can be expanded to:

More detailed rhythmic structures (tuplets, syncopation, complex meters)
Harmony and chords (vertical structures, voicing, progressions)
Integration with other DV domains (dance, theater, frequency-based concepts, and more)
Standardization of instrument codes, dynamics, articulations, and metadata formats

I see DV Language not as a replacement for traditional staff notation, but as a parallel, textual layer that makes music easier to:

Type
Teach
Analyze
Share with machines

Intellectual Property & Collaborators

DV Language, including the notation examples presented in this article, is part of an original and evolving creative system developed by the author, Ronen Kolton Yehuda (MKR: Messiah King RKY). It is shared here for reading, learning, and discussion; any substantial reuse, adaptation, or implementation in software, curricula, or commercial projects should include clear credit to the author and may require prior written permission.

I welcome serious collaborators — musicians, educators, technologists, and researchers — who are interested in exploring, implementing, or teaching DV Language in tools, curricula, and creative projects.