Description of Chord Progressions by Minimal Transport Graphs Using the System & Contrast Model

International audienceIn this paper we model relations between chords by minimal transport and we investigate different types of dependencies within chord sequences. For this purpose we use the “System & Contrast” (S&C) model, designed for the description of music segments at the phrase scale, to infer non-sequential structures called chord progression graphs (CPG). Minimal transport is defined as the shortest displacement of notes, in semitones, between a pair of chords. The paper present three algorithms to find CPGs for chords sequences: one is sequential, and two others are based on the S&C model. The three methods are compared using the perplexity as an efficiency measure. The experiments on a corpus of 45 segments taken from songs of multiple genres, indicate that optimization processes based on the S&C model outperform the sequential model with a decrease in perplexity over 1.0

Modeling the multiscale structure of chord sequences using polytopic graphs

International audienceChord sequences are an essential source of information in a number of MIR tasks. However, beyond the sequential nature of musical content, relations and dependencies within a music segment can be more efficiently modeled as a graph. Polytopic Graphs have been recently introduced to model music structure so as to account for multiscale relationships between events located at metrically homologous instants. In this paper, we focus on the description of chord sequences and we study a specific set of graph configurations , called Primer Preserving Permutations (PPP). For sequences of 16 chords, PPPs account for 6 different latent systems of relations, corresponding to 6 main structural patterns (Prototypical Carrier Sequences or PCS). Observed chord sequences can be viewed as distorted versions of these PCS and the corresponding optimal PPP is estimated by minimizing a description cost over the latent relations. After presenting the main concepts of this approach, the article provides a detailed study of PPPs across a corpus of 727 chord sequences annotated from the RWC POP database (100 pop songs). Our results illustrate both qualitatively and quantitatively the potential of the proposed model for capturing long-term multiscale structure in musical data, which remains a challenge in computational music modeling and in Music Information Retrieval

Cubaneo In Latin Piano: A Parametric Approach To Gesture, Texture, And Motivic Variation

ABSTRACT CUBANEO IN LATIN PIANO: A PARAMETRIC APPROACH TO GESTURE, TEXTURE, AND MOTIVIC VARIATION COPYRIGHT Orlando Enrique Fiol 2018 Dr. Carol A. Muller Over the past century of recorded evidence, Cuban popular music has undergone great stylistic changes, especially regarding the piano tumbao. Hybridity in the Cuban/Latin context has taken place on different levels to varying extents involving instruments, genres, melody, harmony, rhythm, and musical structures. This hybridity has involved melding, fusing, borrowing, repurposing, adopting, adapting, and substituting. But quantifying and pinpointing these processes has been difficult because each variable or parameter embodies a history and a walking archive of sonic aesthetics. In an attempt to classify and quantify precise parameters involved in hybridity, this dissertation presents a paradigmatic model, organizing music into vocabularies, repertories, and abstract procedures. Cuba\u27s pianistic vocabularies are used very interactively, depending on genre, composite ensemble texture, vocal timbre, performing venue, and personal taste. These vocabularies include: melodic phrases, harmonic progressions, rhythmic cells and variation schemes to replace repetition with methodical elaboration of the piano tumbao as a main theme. These pianistic vocabularies comprise what we actually hear. Repertories, such as pre-composed songs, ensemble arrangements, and open- ended montuno and solo sections, situate and contextualize what we hear in real life musical performances. Abstract procedures are the thoughts, aesthetics, intentions, and parametric rules governing what Cuban/Latin pianists consider possible. Abstract procedures alter vocabularies by displacing, expanding, contracting, recombining, permuting, and layering them. As Cuba\u27s popular musics find homes in its musical diaspora (the United States, Latin America and Europe), Cuban pianists have sought to differentiate their craft from global salsa and Latin jazz pianists. Expanding the piano\u27s gestural/textural vocabulary beyond pre-Revolutionary traditions and performance practices, the timba piano tumbao is a powerful marker of Cuban identity and musical pride, transcending national borders and cultural boundaries

Change and Transformation: The Harp as a Symbol of Liminality in Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker (1892)

The harp is a musical instrument with a uniquely resonating timbre, and a highly specialized expressive niche within the orchestral repertoire. A deeper study of the harp’s metaphorical use is conducted in this report by evaluating the historical context in which the harp emerged, analyzing the timbre of the modern double-action pedal harp, and reviewing the historically significant ensemble works to reveal why composers elected to feature the harp in the orchestra, in lieu of and in conjunction with other instruments. Each of these elements points squarely towards the use of the harp to represent liminal themes and the universal sentiments associated with experiencing change and transformation. To this end, the harp parts from the score of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker (1892) are analyzed, alongside the theatrical cues of the first edition ballet score, and E.T.A. Hoffman’s original fairytale narrative that the ballet libretto was based on. The orchestration of two harp parts in the original score, featured at the points of the many transformational thresholds in the narrative make The Nutcracker ballet a particularly compelling piece to study, with striking examples of how the harp’s timbre is used to effectively express liminality

Applying Transformational Music Theory to Dynamic Music Composition for Game Soundtracks: A practice-based investigation

Dynamic music systems are often found in video games for interactively altering music as a result of player input and game events. Real-time recomposition of music is a ``holy grail'' of dynamic soundtracks. However, common approaches based on managing multi-track audio and sequenced segments face challenges in responding musically to events. Audio tracks are limited due to a lack of granularity and sequenced content is unwieldy due to the complexity of relationships. Many of these limitations can be addressed, in part, by the representation used for the musical material. In this thesis I engage with generative sequencing for dynamic soundtracks through application of algorithmic composition to manage complexity. In this practice, I utilise a novel representational model to situate musical material in spatial relationships, drawing on concepts from transformational music theory. I have implemented this model as a new software library, ScaleVec, which is also explained in detail in this research. This alternate approach to dynamic soundtracks addresses shortcomings in the granularity of contemporary stem-based approaches by generating and rendering a soundtrack in real-time. Furthermore, the spatial representation facilitates a path-based model which manages complex relationships by mapping out where the soundtrack has been, where it is planning to go and where it may diverge in response to events. Through a practice-led enquiry, I evaluate the quality of this approach by considering dynamic music for games according to four categories of adaptive behaviours: immediate (short-timescale), game-state (mid-timescale), plot (long-timescale) and variation (steady-state). These four timescales are applied as a conceptual framework for the contextualisation and discussion of two prototype soundtracks, Spaceship and Submarine. These two works utilise ScaleVec to control the musical output of the generative processes, presenting a parametric interface for the dynamic behaviours of the soundtrack. The reflection and discussion of my practice examines the perceived affordances, musical quality and the nature of my compositional process. The capacity for real-time recomposition through generative scoring, by managing musical spaces with ScaleVec, represents a paradigmatic shift which allows for deeper engagement with the interactive facets of video game music composition, thereby embracing the emergent nature of gameplay as an integral part of the soundtrack

Listening with Two Ears: Conflicting Perceptions of Space in Tonal Music

The Tonnetz is a spatial model of tonal pitch, constructed by placing fifths along the horizontal axis of a coordinate plane and thirds along the vertical axis. This dissertation examines the ways in which different conceptions of interval, including just-intonation ratios, diatonic scalar intervals, and pitch-class intervals, result in different Tonnetz geometries, representing different, and sometimes conflicting, modes of musical perception, and argues for treating conflicts between these often unexamined conceptions of interval as an explicit part of musical analysis. Chapter One considers relationships between a number of Tonnetz spaces, as well as the groups of intervals they model, using harmonic function theory. Chapter Two examines ways in which pitches may project multiple functions in Tonnetz spaces and uses these spaces to model some aspects of the harmonic theory of Jean-Philippe Rameau. Chapter Three considers the ways in which neo-Riemannian transformations, as ways of relating triads and seventh chords to one another, might be associated with changes of harmonic function in different Tonnetz spaces, and culminates in an analysis of Chopin's E Minor Prelude. Chapter Four explores primary triads with chromatically altered roots and fifths and, in this context, analyzes an unusual modulation from A-flat major to E major in Hugo Wolf's song "An den Schlaf." Finally, Chapter Five considers harmonic function in nontriadic music, examining the beginning of the final movement of Bartók's Fourth String Quartet

Tangible interface for composing music with limited degrees of freedom

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2012.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 83-88).This thesis presents SoundStrand, a novel tangible interface for composing music. A new paradigm is also presented - one that allows for music composition with limited degrees of freedom, and therefore is well suited for music creation through the use of tangible interfaces. SoundStrand is comprised of a set of building blocks that represent pre-composed musical segments. By sequentially connecting building blocks to one another, the user arranges these segments into a musical theme; and by individually twisting, stretching and bending the blocks, variations of the melodic, harmonic and rhythmic content are introduced. Software tools are made available to program the musical segments and govern SoundStrand's behavior. Additional work, namely the Coda system, is presented in order to put SoundStrand and the described paradigm in a wider context as tools for music sharing and learning.by Eyal Shahar.S.M

Third International Conference on Technologies for Music Notation and Representation TENOR 2017

The third International Conference on Technologies for Music Notation and Representation seeks to focus on a set of specific research issues associated with Music Notation that were elaborated at the first two editions of TENOR in Paris and Cambridge. The theme of the conference is vocal music, whereas the pre-conference workshops focus on innovative technological approaches to music notation

Proceedings of the 7th Sound and Music Computing Conference

Proceedings of the SMC2010 - 7th Sound and Music Computing Conference, July 21st - July 24th 2010