Bertso transformation with pattern-based sampling

This paper presents a method to generate new melodies, based on conserving the semiotic structure of a template piece. A pattern discovery algorithm is applied to a template piece to extract significant segments: those that are repeated and those that are transposed in the piece. Two strategies are combined to describe the semiotic coherence structure of the template piece: inter-segment coherence and intra-segment coherence. Once the structure is described it is used as a template for new musical content that is generated using a statistical model created from a corpus of bertso melodies and iteratively improved using a stochastic optimization method. Results show that the method presented here effectively describes a coherence structure of a piece by discovering repetition and transposition relations between segments, and also by representing the relations among notes within the segments. For bertso generation the method correctly conserves all intra and inter-segment coherence of the template, and the optimization method produces coherent generated melodies

Methodological contributions by means of machine learning methods for automatic music generation and classification

189 p.Ikerketa lan honetan bi gai nagusi landu dira: musikaren sorkuntza automatikoa eta sailkapena. Musikaren sorkuntzarako bertso doinuen corpus bat hartu da abiapuntu moduan doinu ulergarri berriak sortzeko gai den metodo bat sortzeko. Doinuei ulergarritasuna hauen barnean dauden errepikapen egiturek ematen dietela suposatu da, eta metodoaren hiru bertsio nagusi aurkeztu dira, bakoitzean errepikapen horien definizio ezberdin bat erabiliz.Musikaren sailkapen automatikoan hiru ataza garatu dira: generoen sailkapena, familia melodikoen taldekatzea eta konposatzaileen identifikazioa. Musikaren errepresentazio ezberdinak erabili dira ataza bakoitzerako, eta ikasketa automatikoko hainbat teknika ere probatu dira, emaitzarik hoberenak zeinek ematen dituen aztertzeko.Gainbegiratutako sailkapenaren alorrean ere binakako sailkapenaren gainean lana egin da, aurretik existitzen zen metodo bat optimizatuz. Hainbat datu baseren gainean probatu da garatutako teknika, baita konposatzaile klasikoen piezen ezaugarriez osatutako datu base batean ere

Learning and Recalling Melodies: A Computational Investigation Using the Melodic Recall Paradigm

Using melodic recall paradigm data, we describe an algorithmic approach to assessing melodic learning across multiple attempts. In a first simulation experiment, we reason for using similarity measures to assess melodic recall performance over previously utilized accuracy-based measures. In Experiment 2, with up to six attempts per melody, 31 participants sang back 28 melodies (length 15–48 notes) presented either as a piano sound or a vocal audio excerpt from real pop songs. Our analysis aimed to predict the similarity between the target melody and participants’ sung recalls across successive attempts. Similarity was measured with different algorithmic measures reflecting various structural (e.g., tonality, intervallic) aspects of melodies and overall similarity. However, previous melodic recall research mentioned, but did not model, that the length of the sung recalls tends to increase across attempts, alongside overall performance. Consequently, we modeled how the attempt length changes alongside similarity to meet this omission in the literature. In a mediation analysis, we find that a target melody’s length, but not other melodic features, is the main predictor of similarity via the attempt length. We conclude that sheer length constraints appear to be the main factor when learning melodies long enough to require several attempts to recall. Analytical features of melodic structure may be more important for shorter melodies, or with stimulus sets that are structurally more diverse than those found in the sample of pop songs used in this study

Methodological contributions by means of machine learning methods for automatic music generation and classification

189 p.Ikerketa lan honetan bi gai nagusi landu dira: musikaren sorkuntza automatikoa eta sailkapena. Musikaren sorkuntzarako bertso doinuen corpus bat hartu da abiapuntu moduan doinu ulergarri berriak sortzeko gai den metodo bat sortzeko. Doinuei ulergarritasuna hauen barnean dauden errepikapen egiturek ematen dietela suposatu da, eta metodoaren hiru bertsio nagusi aurkeztu dira, bakoitzean errepikapen horien definizio ezberdin bat erabiliz.Musikaren sailkapen automatikoan hiru ataza garatu dira: generoen sailkapena, familia melodikoen taldekatzea eta konposatzaileen identifikazioa. Musikaren errepresentazio ezberdinak erabili dira ataza bakoitzerako, eta ikasketa automatikoko hainbat teknika ere probatu dira, emaitzarik hoberenak zeinek ematen dituen aztertzeko.Gainbegiratutako sailkapenaren alorrean ere binakako sailkapenaren gainean lana egin da, aurretik existitzen zen metodo bat optimizatuz. Hainbat datu baseren gainean probatu da garatutako teknika, baita konposatzaile klasikoen piezen ezaugarriez osatutako datu base batean ere

Towards an Intelligent Learning Environment for Melody Composition Through Formalisation of Narmour's <i>Implication-Realisation Model</i>

This thesis describes research with the ultimate goal o f finding ways to use artificial intelligence (AI) to encourage and facilitate melody composition by musical novices. The work described in this thesis forms the groundwork for the development of intelligent learning environments for novice composers in this domain. There were two stages to the research. The first stage was the formalisation and testing of an existing analytical theory o f melody. This theory offers an explanation of how musical listeners break-up a melody into "chunks", and hear some notes as more important than others. The theory enables analysis of melodies in a hierarchical fashion. The formalisation process involved the implementation of a parser to create hierarchical analyses, and comparison of published analyses based on the theory with those created by the parser from the same melodies. From these results a critical evaluation of the analytical theory, and the parser, is presented. The second stage o f the research involved extending the parser with constraint-based generation techniques. One result is an AI tool (called MOTIVE), which can generate melodies given an analysis (from the parser, or constructed by the user) and a set of constraints to be applied at each hierarchical level. The features of the tool are presented, and a general architecture for an intelligent learning environment is proposed, within which MOTIVE would reside, which shows how the formalised analytical theory from the first part of the work could be used educationally by novice composers of melody

Musical practices in the Balkans : Ethnomusicological perspectives

Ова књига садржи студије настале на основу излагања на међународном скупу Музичке праксе Балкана: етномузиколошке перспективе, одржаном новембра 2011. године у Београду. Организовањем скупа желели смо, пре свега, да као домаћини међународног скупа допринесемо учвршћивању постојећих контаката међу истраживачима који се баве музикама Балкана, као и да пружимо могућност за нова професионална познанства. У проблемском смислу, намера нам је била да створимо прилику за преиспитивање и унапређивање сопствених учешћа у етномузикологији, да дискутовањем о различитим истраживачким стратегијама примењиваним на балканске музичке праксе у новије време допринесемо унапређењу њихових истраживања, као и да скретањем пажње на специфичне проблеме, али и вредности етномузикологије, односно „националних етномузикологија“ на Балкану учествујемо у ефикаснијем укључивању „малих“ дисциплинарних заједница у светско етномузиколошко друштво. Овакве, у извесном смислу опште потребе, потенциране су околностима развоја етномузикологије у Србији, посебно последњих деценија. Интересовања за традиционалну народну музику изражена кроз записе о њој, њено нотирање и снимање, а потом и прве студије образованих музичара, махом композитора, у Србији су (тек) 1948. добили институционално окриље оснивањем Музиколошког института Српске академије наука (данас Српске академије наука и уметности – САНУ). Од оснивања до данас то је државна установа, те је начин рада условљен државним културним и научним политикама, а обим научне продукције кључно је одређивао увек мали број истраживача. Повећање броја етномузиколога запослених у Институту резултирало је иницијативом да се у оквиру обележавања 170 година постојања САНУ, након већег броја скупова које су организовали музиколози из Института, приреди међународни етномузиколошки скуп. То је, уједно, био и први специјализовани етномузиколошки симпозијум у Србији, а сходно томе, ово је први зборник таквог профила објављен у нашој земљи. Комплексна подршка коју смо добили од САНУ – Одељења ликовне и музичке уметности, као и признавање важности оваквог скупа од стране Министарства просвете и науке Републике Србије, што је подразумевало финансијску помоћ организацији, били су неопходни предуслови и за саму реализацију скупа, и за објављивање овог зборника. Као и увек, обим помоћи, а посебно рокови, били су лимитирајући фактори нашим идејама и професионалним жељама. Изражавамо нарочиту захвалност уваженим колегама који су били у саставу Програмског одбора скупа: Изаљију Земцовском, Џиму Самсону, Мартину Стоуксу, Лозанки Пејчевој и Палу Рихтеру. Непосредне задатке из домена организације скупа делили смо првенствено са колегама-етномузиколозима из Института, Растком Јаковљевићем и Маријом Думнић. Велико нам је задовољство што смо имали прилику да окупимо 26 етномузиколога из 11 земаља: Бугарске, Велике Британије, Грчке, Литваније, Мађарске, Македоније, Русије, Словеније, Турске, Аустралије и Србије. Жао нам је што, због објективних околности, на скупу нису могли да узму учешћа неки од истраживача музика Балкана са других подручја, чија би искуства несумњиво допринела квалитету симпозијума и зборника. Велика већина учесника скупа је приредила своја излагања за публиковање. Сада се пред читаоцима налази двадесет једна студија која на различите начине осветљава музичке праксе Балкана, сведочећи о ширини актуелних истраживачких интересовања и методологија. Издање укључује и вредне аудио и видео примере на приложеном диску, чиме читаоцима омогућавамо потпунији увид у истраживану музику и научне приступе. Обраћајући се ширем кругу читалаца, зборник је публикован на енглеском језику, али је ауторима остављена могућност да своје радове приложе и на матерњим језицима, па су ове верзије такође приложене на диску. Уређивање овог обимног и комплексног зборника је било посебно искуство. Захваљујемо се свим ауторима за прилоге и сарадњу. Посебну захвалност дугујемо рецензентима студија. У овом обимном послу подршку смо имали од читавог колектива Музиколошког института, а нарочито од колегинице др Мелите Милин, која је имала мноштво драгоцених сугестија. Ангажовање др Јелене Симоновић-Schiff (Државни универзитет Портланда, САД) око лекторисања текстова на енглеском језику, Зорана Јерковића у припреми звучних примера, Милоша Рашића у обради видео- примера и Горана Јањића на техничкој припреми издања, далеко је превазишло базичне задатке, због чега смо им велики дужници.This book is comprised of studies presented at the international symposium Musical practices in the Balkans: ethnomusicological perspectives, held in November 2011 in Belgrade, Serbia. By organizing this international meeting, as hosts, we above all wanted to contribute to strengthening the existing ties among researchers involved with Balkan musics and to facilitate new professional contacts. Our intent was to create an opportunity for reassessment and improvement of each of our own shares in ethnomusicology, to contribute to the advancement of research by discussing various research strategies recently applied to Balkan musical practices, and to participate in the more efficient inclusion of ‘small’ disciplinary communities in the global ethnomusicologies by highlighting specific values and problems of ‘national ethnomusicologies’ in the Balkans. These, so to speak, general needs, were reinforced in circumstances of the growth of the ethnomusicology in Serbia, particularly in recent decades. The interests in traditional folk music expressed through writings, notation, and recording of the same, followed by the first research studies by educated musicians—mainly composers, became institutionalized in Serbia (only) in 1948 with foundation of the Institute of musicology of Serbian academy of sciences (today Serbian academy of sciences and arts—SASA). Since its beginning, SASA has been a state institution, with its work regimen determined by the government culture and science politics and the scope of research output administered by a small number of researchers. The increase in number of ethnomusicologists employed by the Institute resulted in an initiative to celebrate the SASA 170th anniversary by organizing an ethnomusicology conference, in the footsteps of a number of similar professional meetings coordinated by the Institute’s musicologists. This was at the same time the first narrowly specialized ethnomusicology symposium in Serbia, and consequently, in front of you is the first proceedings of such profile published in our country. The substantial support received from the SASA Department of fine arts and music and the acknowledgement of the significance of such a meeting by the Ministry of education and science of the Republic of Serbia, including funding the event organization, were essential and indispensable prerequisites for the Symposium realization and publication of this book. As is usually the case, the extent of financial support and particularly deadlines, imposed limits on some of our ideas and professional desires. We are deeply grateful to our esteemed colleagues, members of the Symposium Program committee: Izaly Zemtsovsky, Jim Samson, Martin Stokes, Lozanka Peycheva, and Pál Richter. The Symposium immediate logistics duties were helpfully shared primarily with our colleagues, the Institute ethnomusicologists, Rastko Jakovljević and Marija Dumnić. It was our satisfaction to have the opportunity to gather twenty-six ethnomusicologists from eleven countries: Bulgaria, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Lithuania, Macedonia, Russia, Slovenia, Turkey, Australia, and Serbia. We regret that due to objective circumstances, some of the Balkans researchers from other regions, whose experiences would unquestionably contribute to the quality of the Symposium and these proceedings, could not take part. The vast majority of the Symposium participants prepared their papers for publication. The readers are offered twenty-one studies that in different ways illuminate Balkan musical practices and testify to the breadth of current research interests and methodologies. The publication also includes a compact disc with useful audio and video examples, assembled with the idea to provide the reader with even more complete insight into the researched music and utilized approaches. In order to address a wider audience, the proceedings are published in English. Since the contributing authors could optionally submit an additional version of the paper in their native language, those versions are also provided on the compact disc. Editing of this extensive and comprehensive publication presented a unique experience. We would like to thank all of the authors for submitting their papers and for their cooperation. We also extend our sincere gratitude to our reviewers. In this voluminous undertaking, we enjoyed the support of our colleagues at the Institute, but in particular, the encouragement from Melita Milin who offered a number of valuable suggestions. We truly appreciate the cooperation of Jelena Simonović Schiff (Portland State University, USA) in proof reading papers in English, Zoran Jerković in mastering of audio examples, Miloš Rašić in preparing of video examples, and Goran Janjić in technical preparation for print that exceeded standard duties and helped shape this publication.Објављивање овог зборника финансијски је помогло Министарство просвете, науке и технолошког развоја Републике Србије. / These proceedings have been financially supported by Ministry of education, science and technological development of the Republic of Serbia. Зборник радова са научног скупа одржаног од 23. до 25. новембра 2011. / Proceeding of the international conference held from november 23 to 25. , 2011

Hearing in the mind\u27s ear: A PET investigation of musical imagery and perception

Neuropsychological studies have suggested that imagery processes may be mediated by neuronal mechanisms similar to those used in perception. To test this hypothesis, and to explore the neural basis for song imagery, 12 normal subjects were scanned using the water bolus method to measure cerebral blood flow (CBF) during the performance of three tasks. In the control condition subjects saw pairs of words on each trial and judged which word was longer. In the perceptual condition subjects also viewed pairs of words, this time drawn from a familiar song; simultaneously they heard the corresponding song, and their task was to judge the change in pitch of the two cued words within the song. In the imagery condition, subjects performed precisely the same judgment as in the perceptual condition, but with no auditory input. Thus, to perform the imagery task correctly an internal auditory representation must be accessed. Paired-image subtraction of the resulting pattern of CBF, together with matched MRI for anatomical localization, revealed that both perceptual and imagery. tasks produced similar patterns of CBF changes, as compared to the control condition, in keeping with the hypothesis. More specifically, both perceiving and imagining songs are associated with bilateral neuronal activity in the secondary auditory cortices, suggesting that processes within these regions underlie the phenomenological impression of imagined sounds. Other CBF foci elicited in both tasks include areas in the left and right frontal lobes and in the left parietal lobe, as well as the supplementary motor area. This latter region implicates covert vocalization as one component of musical imagery. Direct comparison of imagery and perceptual tasks revealed CBF increases in the inferior frontal polar cortex and right thalamus. We speculate that this network of regions may be specifically associated with retrieval and/or generation of auditory information from memory

Acquired and congenital disorders of sung performance: A review.

Many believe that the majority of people are unable to carry a tune. Yet, this widespread idea underestimates the singing abilities of the layman. Most occasional singers can sing in tune and in time, provided that they perform at a slow tempo. Here we characterize proficient singing in the general population and identify its neuronal underpinnings by reviewing behavioral and neuroimaging studies. In addition, poor singing resulting from a brain injury or neurogenetic disorder (i.e., tone deafness or congenital amusia) is examined. Different lines of evidence converge in indicating that poor singing is not a monolithic deficit. A variety of poor-singing "phenotypes" are described, with or without concurrent perceptual deficits. In addition, particular attention is paid to the dissociations between specific abilities in poor singers (e.g., production of absolute vs. relative pitch, pitch vs. time accuracy). Such diversity of impairments in poor singers can be traced to different faulty mechanisms within the vocal sensorimotor loop, such as pitch perception and sensorimotor integration

Neural processing of poems and songs is based on melodic properties

The neural processing of speech and music is still a matter of debate. A long tradition that assumes shared processing capacities for the two domains contrasts with views that assume domain-specific processing. We here contribute to this topic by investigating, in a functional magnetic imaging (fMRI) study, ecologically valid stimuli that are identical in wording and differ only in that one group is typically spoken (or silently read), whereas the other is sung: poems and their respective musical settings. We focus on the melodic properties of spoken poems and their sung musical counterparts by looking at proportions of significant autocorrelations (PSA) based on pitch values extracted from their recordings. Following earlier studies, we assumed a bias of poem-processing towards the left and a bias for song-processing on the right hemisphere. Furthermore, PSA values of poems and songs were expected to explain variance in left- vs. right-temporal brain areas, while continuous liking ratings obtained in the scanner should modulate activity in the reward network. Overall, poem processing compared to song processing relied on left temporal regions, including the superior temporal gyrus, whereas song processing compared to poem processing recruited more right temporal areas, including Heschl's gyrus and the superior temporal gyrus. PSA values co-varied with activation in bilateral temporal regions for poems, and in right-dominant fronto-temporal regions for songs. Continuous liking ratings were correlated with activity in the default mode network for both poems and songs. The pattern of results suggests that the neural processing of poems and their musical settings is based on their melodic properties, supported by bilateral temporal auditory areas and an additional right fronto-temporal network known to be implicated in the processing of melodies in songs. These findings take a middle ground in providing evidence for specific processing circuits for speech and music in the left and right hemisphere, but simultaneously for shared processing of melodic aspects of both poems and their musical settings in the right temporal cortex. Thus, we demonstrate the neurobiological plausibility of assuming the importance of melodic properties in spoken and sung aesthetic language alike, along with the involvement of the default mode network in the aesthetic appreciation of these properties