Automatic Transcription of Diatonic Harmonica Recordings

This paper presents a method for automatic transcription of the diatonic Harmonica instrument. It estimates the multi-pitch activations through a spectrogram factorisation framework. This framework is based on Probabilistic Latent Component Analysis (PLCA) and uses a fixed 4-dimensional dictionary with spectral templates extracted from Harmonica's instrument timbre. Methods based on spectrogram factorisation may suffer from local-optima issues in the presence of harmonic overlap or considerable timbre variability. To alleviate this issue, we propose a set of harmonic constraints that are inherent to the Harmonica instrument note layout or are caused by specific diatonic Harmonica playing techniques. These constraints help to guide the factorisation process until convergence into meaningful multi-pitch activations is achieved. This work also builds a new audio dataset containing solo recordings of diatonic Harmonica excerpts and the respective multi-pitch annotations. We compare our proposed approach against multiple baseline techniques for automatic music transcription on this dataset and report the results based on frame-based F-measure statistics

End-to-End Music Transcription Using Fine-Tuned Variable-Q Filterbanks

The standard time-frequency representations calculated to serve as features for musical audio may have reached the extent of their effectiveness. General-purpose features such as Mel-Frequency Spectral Coefficients or the Constant-Q Transform, while being pyschoacoustically and musically motivated, may not be optimal for all tasks. As large, comprehensive, and well-annotated musical datasets become increasingly available, the viability of learning from the raw waveform of recordings widens. Deep neural networks have been shown to perform feature extraction and classification jointly. With sufficient data, optimal filters which operate in the time-domain may be learned in place of conventional time-frequency calculations. Since the spectrum of problems studied by the Music Information Retrieval community are vastly different, rather than relying on the fixed frequency support of each bandpass filter within standard transforms, learned time-domain filters may prioritize certain harmonic frequencies and model note behavior differently based on a specific music task. In this work, the time-frequency calculation step of a baseline transcription architecture is replaced with a learned equivalent, initialized with the frequency response of a Variable-Q Transform. The learned replacement is fine-tuned jointly with a baseline architecture for the task of piano transcription, and the resulting filterbanks are visualized and evaluated against the standard transform

Black music : three instructional modules and resource materials for urban education.

The black musician in America has created a unique musical experience in a style peculiarly Afro-American, that is often identified as America\u27s distinct contribution to world culture. Yet it has had little impact on the music curriculum of the American educational system. A major challenge for the music education profession has been in the area of curriculum development to meet the needs of urban schools. For the minority students, music education must include the musical activities and contributions of black Americans. In order to meet this challenge, music educators require access to special resources and teaching strategies for the urban classroom. The purpose of this study is twofold: (1)to establish a reference/resource guide in Afro-American music for classroom and individual study; (2)to introduce three instructional modules based on rhythm, melody and harmony in black music. The rationale for this study is based on the underlying assumptions that: (1)the need exists for up-to-date resource materials on Afro-American music; (2)self motivation toward the study of black music will be reinforced through a comprehensive listing of available aural and written resources; (3)a knowledge and understanding of the fundamentals of black music will motivate the student toward an appreciation and study of all music; (4)the keys to success in music education are innovative approaches to music instruction and sensitivity to student needs. Based on a review of the literature and currently available record albums, a discography of Afro-American music was compiled including over one thousand long playing records. Brief historical sketches and descriptions introduce each style listed in the discography. Among the many musical styles documented on recordings in this discography are jazz music from ragtime to jazz-fusion, blues forms from the country blues to rhythm and blues, gospel music, reggae, new wave rock and black concert music. Utilizing the information compiled in the discography and accompanying historical sketches, three instructional modules were created to explore the fundamental elements of rhythm, melody and harmony in Afro-American music. Each module was intended as an audio cassette tape presentation including brief histories and selected concepts of rhythm, melody and harmony with illustrative musical excerpts drawn from the discography. The module on rhythm in black American music introduces the rhythmic concepts of swing, snycopation, the juba, after-beat, two and four, and four on the floor. The module on melodic materials in Afro-American music examines the development and application of the scale constructions of the blues scale, the modes, pentatonic, hexatonic, and gypsy scales. The module on harmonic concepts in Afro-American music introduces the distinct blue harmony, substitute harmony and outside harmonic and melodic practices. The instructional modules and listing of resouce materials are intended to increase recognition of Afro-American music as a major contribution to world culture. These material should help music educators overcome the biases of white racism in American schools and society

Triple Synthesis

This thesis investigates the result of merging three musical approaches (jazz fusion, breakbeat/IDM and Electronic Dance Music) and their respective methodologies as applied to music composition. It is presented in a progressive manner. Chapters two to four identify and discuss each of the three styles separately in terms of the research undertaken in the preparation of this thesis. Chapter 2 discusses, through a close examination of selected compositions and recordings, both Weather Report and Herbie Hancock as representing source material for research and compositional study in terms of melody, harmony and orchestration from the 1970s jazz-fusion genre. Chapter 3 examines breakbeat and Intelligent Dance Music (IDM) drum rhythm programming through both technique and musical application. Chapter 4 presents an examination of selected contemporary Electronic Dance Music (EDM) techniques and discusses their importance in current electronic music styles. Chapters 5, 6 and 7 each present an original composition based on the application and synthesis of the styles and techniques explored in the previous three chapters, with each composition defined by proportions of influence from each of the three styles as in the Venn diagram shown in the introduction. Since the musical context of the original compositions is software oriented, diagrams and computer screenshots are used in addition to conventional score notation in order to highlight details of musical examples and techniques. The final chapter discusses the conclusions made through the thesis research and result of this “synthesis” style of composition

A Musicological Analysis of Nature's Best

Academic research on New Zealand popular music has primarily been conducted from historical and cultural perspectives. While asking important questions, these sources have rarely engaged with the musical details of New Zealand popular music. This thesis is a musicological analysis of the 100 songs from the three Nature’s Best albums. The musical perspective complements the socio-cultural research on New Zealand popular music. The Nature’s Best project was instigated by Mike Chunn in 2001 to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA). All songwriting members of APRA and 100 celebrities and critics were invited to vote for their ten favourite New Zealand popular songs. Fourmyula’s 1969 hit ‘Nature’ gained the most votes. The three Nature’s Best CDs ranked the top 100 songs. The albums were a commercial success upon release in 2002 and 2003. This thesis analyses the 100 songs with regards to eight musical parameters: harmony, melodic construction, form, beat, length, tempo, introductory hooks and instrumental solos. The analytical methods were drawn from classical and popular musicology. Interviews with twelve songwriters were also conducted to gain alternative viewpoints on the analysis. The 100 songs provide a sample of New Zealand popular music from 1970 until 2000; thus, the analysis is useful for addressing questions of New Zealand musical style and traits. The results suggest New Zealand songwriters follow fundamental principles of Anglo-American songwriting, such as arched and balanced melodies, and forms based on repeated and contrasting sections. The harmonic language is similar to international artists of the same period; however, it appears 1970s and 1980s songwriters were more adventurous in this area compared with their 1990s counterparts. The instrumental solos were notable for an anti-virtuosic trait. It is argued this feature mirrors aspects of New Zealand identity

Hearing the Tonality in Microtonality

In the late 1970s and 1980s, composer-pianist Easley Blackwood wrote a series of microtonal compositions exploring the tonal and modal behavior of a dozen non–twelve-tone equal temperaments, ranging from 13 to 24 tones per octave. This dissertation investigates a central paradox of Blackwood’s microtonal music: that despite being full of intervals most Western listeners have never heard before, it still seems to “make sense” in nontrivial ways. Much of this has to do with the music’s idiosyncratic approach to tonality, which I define as a regime of culturally conditioned expectations that guides one’s attentional processing of music’s gravitational qualities over time. More specifically, Blackwood configures each tuning’s unfamiliar elements in ways that correspond to certain schematic expectations Western listeners tend to have about how tonal music “works.” This is why it is still possible to hear the forest of tonality in this music, so to speak, despite the odd-sounding trees that comprise it. Because of its paradoxical blend of expectational conformance and expectational noncompliance, Blackwood’s microtonal music makes for a useful tool to snap most Western-enculturated listeners out of their ingrained modes of musical processing and reveal certain things about tonality that are often taken for granted. Accordingly, just as Blackwood writes conventional-sounding music in unconventional tunings, this dissertation rethinks several familiar music-theoretic terms and concepts through the defamiliarizing lens of microtonality. I use Blackwood’s microtonal music as a prism to shine a light on traditional theories of tonality, scale degrees, consonance and dissonance, and harmonic function, arguing that many of these theories rely on assumptions that are tacitly tied to twelve-tone equal temperament and common-practice major/minor music. By unhooking these terms and concepts from any one specific tuning or historical period, I build up a set of analytical tools that can allow one to engage more productively with the many modalities of tonality typically heard on a daily basis today. This dissertation proceeds in six chapters. The four interior chapters each center on one of the terms and concepts mentioned above: scale degrees (Chapter 2), consonance and dissonance (Chapter 3), harmonic function (Chapter 4), and tonality (Chapter 5). In Chapter 2, I propose a system for labeling scale degrees that can provide more nuance and flexibility when reckoning with music in any diatonic mode (and in any tuning). In Chapter 3, I advance an account of consonance and dissonance as expectational phenomena (rather than purely psychoacoustic ones), and I consider the ways that non-pitched elements such as meter and notation can act as “consonating” and/or “dissonating” forces. In Chapter 4, I characterize harmonic function as arising from the interaction of generic scalar position and metrical position, and I devise a system for labeling harmonic functions that is better attuned to affective differences across the diatonic modes. In Chapter 5, I synthesize these building blocks into a conception of fuzzy heptatonic diatonic tonality that links together not only all of Blackwood’s microtonal compositions but also more familiar musics that use a twelve-tone octave, from Euroclassical to popular styles. The outer chapters are less explicitly music-analytical in focus. Chapter 1 introduces readers to Blackwood’s compositional approach and notational system, considers the question of his intended audience, and discusses the ways that enculturation mediates the cognition of microtonality (and of unfamiliar music more generally). Chapter 6 draws upon archival documents to paint a more detailed picture of who Blackwood was as a person and how his idiosyncratic worldview colors his approach to composition, scholarship, and interpersonal interaction. While my nominal focus in these six chapters is Blackwood’s microtonal music, the repertorial purview of my project is far broader. One of my guiding claims throughout is that attending more closely to the paradoxes and contradictions of Blackwood’s microtonality can help one better understand the musics they are accustomed to hearing. For this reason, I frequently compare moments in Blackwood’s microtonal music to ones in more familiar styles to highlight unexpected analogies and point up common concerns. Sharing space with Blackwood in the pages that follow are Anita Baker, Ornette Coleman, Claude Debussy, and Richard Rodgers, among others—not to mention music from Curb Your Enthusiasm, Fortnite, Sesame Street, and Star Wars. Ultimately, this project is a testament to the value of stepping outside of one’s musical comfort zone. For not only can this reveal certain things about that comfort zone that would not be apparent otherwise, but it can also help one think with greater nuance, precision, and (self-)awareness when “stepping back in” to reflect upon the music they know and love

The reverse action Piano Harp : innovation and adaptation from Piano and Autoharp

The Reverse Action Piano Harp:Innovation and Adaptation from Piano and AutoharpThe piano is capable of controlling significant polyphony through the detail of voicing and sustain; a unique ability. However it remains a limited and frustrating instrument in terms of its ability to manipulate timbre. Contact with the strings is remote, and timbre inflection limited to note-onset within the capability of its mechanism; its musical output is often likened to visual studies in black and white. From the standpoint of design all musical instruments compromise musical capability in one form or another in order to align with human physical and sensory capability. A full range of expression may be sought by developing expertise on different instruments, but this is frustrating; in terms of expert performance interfaces such as guitar and piano are mutually exclusive — common theoretical structure must be relearned for comparable performance expression. This study explores the potential to create an instrument comprising a set of musical compromises comparable to that of the guitar, whilst remaining adaptive to pianistic technique. It begins with exploration of the autoharp and posits a keyboard variant of this instrument.Practice based research has been undertaken in the form of a prototype series and musical engagement upon the resulting instruments. Five prototypes have been developed, practice engages with aspects of automated design and manufacture, and in the latter stages, working with an exceptional industry based luthier. The resulting instrument has been patented. Musical practice encompasses genres from gypsy-jazz to contemporary experimental music. New works have been commissioned for the instrument and other musicians have played and studied it.Practice is supported through analysis of related forms of musical instrument (which influence the developing design) and the nature of change within musical technology. The result is a new, versatile instrument, with demonstrated capacity to gain traction and to propagate within the musical community

I Belong to the Band: The Music of Reverend Gary Davis

“I Belong to the Band” is the first extensive analytical examination of the music of guitarist/singer Reverend Gary Davis (1896-1972), whose vast repertoire and instrumental virtuosity made him a favorite performer and teacher during the folk and blues revival. Discussed in detail are his songs and aspects of musical technique as well as larger issues such as appropriation in traditional song, the interplay of sacred and secular content and style in African American song, the role(s) of blindness in musical culture, and contrastive and associative symmetries in blues performances. To better glean Davis’s music and the world in which he lived, numerous methodologies were called on including the use of musicological, structuralist, and Jungian interpretative models, textual linguistics in my examination of visual and violent imagery and inference in Davis’s songs, and contextual and biographical analysis. This dissertation also contains the most complete and accurate discography of Davis to date, plus analysis and classification of songs and performances through a number of data-driven as well as hermeneutic approaches including key choice, sacred or secular content, stanzaic structures, and lyric tropes. In the process, I have debunked certain well-established generalizations about Davis, pointing out the extent to which he cultivated a secular repertoire later in his life despite frequent claims by writers that he did not, and I have shown the overreaching influence blindness had on his music and his life. At the same time, this examination of a “folk” figure suggests avenues of research beyond typical folkloric and biographic models, notably through a kind of musicological rigor rarely applied to the performances of such artists. Much can still be culled from this rich swath of musical history simply by revisiting the songs themselves with a more pointed, analytical pen. Ultimately, “I Belong to the Band” demonstrates how one traditional musician forged a highly personalized style from layers of “belonging” and foundation building, from his rural Carolina and African American regional and cultural roots to the rootless solidarity of the Piedmont blues scene to his Christian faith and its expression through gospel music and finally to the “discipleship” he engendered in others who continue to perform his music

How does a student music therapist, working within a multidisciplinary team, address the physical, communication and cognitive needs of two patients who have experienced a left hemisphere mid-cerebral artery (MCA) stroke? An exploratory case study

This case study describes a student music therapist’s experience in a rehabilitation ward working with two patients who had experienced left hemisphere mid cerebral stroke. Each patient’s individual music therapy sessions were documented during their stay in the rehabilitation unit and for a further two months in the community. A variety of music therapy methods were used which specifically targeted patients’ needs and capabilities. The research focused on methods used to support patients’ physical, communication and cognitive rehabilitation, because these are paramount in patients regaining their independence. The case study involved secondary analysis of data collected over a four month period. Key findings suggest that music therapy, may have helped these patients with their speech retrieval. Improved gross and fine motor control was demonstrated in one patient using percussion instrument playing and keyboard mastery as the music therapy methods. Breathing exercises enabled phonation in a man who was non-verbal. Other findings suggest that singing familiar songs, listening to self-selected music and moving to music may have aided cognitive recovery in all of these areas. Although the psychosocial areas were not included in the study, both men looked forward to music therapy sessions and demonstrated improved mood when engaged in music therapy. Music therapy seemed to alieviate frustration and anxiety in the rehabilitation setting for one of the men. Further, family involvement in music therapy was positive for both men. This research suggests that music therapy could have contributed positively to the mens’ rehabilitation and further research focussing on the pyschosocial aspects of music therapy in this setting is recommended