Generation of Two-Voice Imitative Counterpoint from Statistical Models

Generating new music based on rules of counterpoint has been deeply studied in music informatics. In this article, we try to go further, exploring a method for generating new music based on the style of Palestrina, based on combining statistical generation and pattern discovery. A template piece is used for pattern discovery, and the patterns are selected and organized according to a probabilistic distribution, using horizontal viewpoints to describe melodic properties of events. Once the template is covered with patterns, two-voice counterpoint in a florid style is generated into those patterns using a first-order Markov model. The template method solves the problem of coherence and imitation never addressed before in previous research in counterpoint music generation. For constructing the Markov model, vertical slices of pitch and rhythm are compiled over a large corpus of dyads from Palestrina masses. The template enforces different restrictions that filter the possible paths through the generation process. A double backtracking algorithm is implemented to handle cases where no solutions are found at some point within a generation path. Results are evaluated by both information content and listener evaluation, and the paper concludes with a proposed relationship between musical quality and information content. Part of this research has been presented at SMC 2016 in Hamburg, Germany

Deep Learning Techniques for Music Generation -- A Survey

This paper is a survey and an analysis of different ways of using deep learning (deep artificial neural networks) to generate musical content. We propose a methodology based on five dimensions for our analysis: Objective - What musical content is to be generated? Examples are: melody, polyphony, accompaniment or counterpoint. - For what destination and for what use? To be performed by a human(s) (in the case of a musical score), or by a machine (in the case of an audio file). Representation - What are the concepts to be manipulated? Examples are: waveform, spectrogram, note, chord, meter and beat. - What format is to be used? Examples are: MIDI, piano roll or text. - How will the representation be encoded? Examples are: scalar, one-hot or many-hot. Architecture - What type(s) of deep neural network is (are) to be used? Examples are: feedforward network, recurrent network, autoencoder or generative adversarial networks. Challenge - What are the limitations and open challenges? Examples are: variability, interactivity and creativity. Strategy - How do we model and control the process of generation? Examples are: single-step feedforward, iterative feedforward, sampling or input manipulation. For each dimension, we conduct a comparative analysis of various models and techniques and we propose some tentative multidimensional typology. This typology is bottom-up, based on the analysis of many existing deep-learning based systems for music generation selected from the relevant literature. These systems are described and are used to exemplify the various choices of objective, representation, architecture, challenge and strategy. The last section includes some discussion and some prospects.Comment: 209 pages. This paper is a simplified version of the book: J.-P. Briot, G. Hadjeres and F.-D. Pachet, Deep Learning Techniques for Music Generation, Computational Synthesis and Creative Systems, Springer, 201

The organ music of Ethel Smyth: a guide to its history and performance practice

This document provides a thorough biography of Dame Ethel Smyth (1858-1944) in reference to her organ works and an analysis of the works themselves. A performance practice guide concludes the document, with the aim of making her works more accessible. The performance practice guidelines address articulation, phrasing, tempo, ornamentation, and registration, based on the performance practice of the day and organs she may have known

Text-setting in William Byrd's Liber primus sacrarum cantionum quinque vocum (1589): toward an analytic methodology

From Fellowes through Kerman, it has become a commonplace that Byrd was acutely sensitive to text and somehow managed to translate that sensitivity into his musical settings. In the famous preface to his 1605 Gradualia, Byrd himself hints that sacred texts have the power to aid the trained mind in setting them to music. Yet relatively little has been done in any systematic way in Byrd scholarship to examine just how his text-setting might operate. However, within Byrd's 1589 Cantiones-a collection of Latin sacred songs-lies an array of evidence of how he prioritized various musical and extramusical factors in his setting of the texts. In my dissertation I begin to uncover this evidence through an examination of four compositional tools and concepts available to Byrd: (1) rhetorical commonplaces, musical and spiritual; (2) mode; (3) texture; and (4) sonority. While some compositional tools and concepts appear to lie almost entirely in the musical realm and bear little impact upon text-setting, others play a powerful role in determining textmusic relationships. As I discuss in chapter 2, rhetorical figures and a broadly conceived notion of decorum are central to text-setting in Byrd's 1589 Cantiones, and they correlate quite powerfully with a broad range of musical features that I discuss in more detail later in the dissertation. In chapter 3, I tackle the topic of mode and examine the correlations between text and pitch organization as manifested by phenomena such as cadences, commixtio, and tessitura. In chapter 4, I examine the relationship between text and texture, paying particular attention to counterpoint, voice entries, and textural density. In chapter 5, I discuss Byrd's settings from the standpoint of text as sonority, considering how Byrd deals with phonemes, syllabic accents, and syntax. And in my conclusion, I compare and contrast the various tools and concepts discussed in the body of the dissertation along with the evidence they have brought forth in order to propose a methodology for analyzing textsetting in Byrd's sacred works

Voice-leading transformation and generative theories of tonal structure

Numerous generative approaches to explaining tonal structure and/or Schenker’s theories have been proposed since Babbitt noted a resemblance between Schenker’s analytical method and Chomskian generative grammars in 1965. One of the more challenging features of Schenker’s theory to replicate in a generative system is the interaction of counterpoint and hierarchy. Many theorists, such as Lerdahl and Jackendoff, skirt the problem by developing non-contrapuntal systems, meaning ones that do not allow for layers with conflicting hierarchical descriptions. This article tackles the counterpoint problem by first proposing a dynamic model for tonal hierarchy, which matches the usage of basic Schenkerian symbols (slurs and beams), and differs from the representational model used by Lerdahl and Jackendoff and others. I then summarize Schenker’s argument for a contrapuntal theory of tonal structure and show that this implies a relativity of contrapuntal voices to structural level which necessitates a theory of voice-leading transformation. This concept of voice-leading transformation marks a crucial turning point in Schenker’s analytical practice leading directly to his theory of levels, and is fundamental to understanding his late theory. The article also operationalizes the idea of voice-leading transformations within a generative system, and illustrates it with short analyses of themes from Bach’sPartitasand an extended analysis of the Menuetto from Beethoven’s Op. 21 Piano Sonata. In the latter analysis the concept of voice-leading transformation facilitates the discovery of an exceptional feature in the deep middleground of the piece.https://www.mtosmt.org/issues/mto.15.21.4/mto.15.21.4.yust.phpPublished versio

A stylistic study of the anthems of Herbert Howells together with a catalogue of the anthems and evening canticles

Bibliography: leaves 177-191.The biographical chapter gives a basic overview of Howells' life. Particular attention has been paid to teaching and church appointments, as the connection with the church was the main influence on his creative processes. This and other (direct or indirect) influences on Howells' creative process are discussed in the chapter following the Biography. The chapter on style focuses on Howells' technique of composition. As Howells acknowledged that Tudor music was a fundamental influence on his writing, aspects of his style that might have been particularly influenced are discussed. Very little analytical study of Howells' anthems has been undertaken to date. For the purpose of this dissertation, all the anthems have been studied and analysed in detail, but only a selection of works representative of his style have been used for the purpose of musical exemplification

Samuel Babcock (1760-1813), Archetypal Psalmondist of the First New England School of Composers

The life, musical activities, compositions, and musical relationships of the Boston-area composer Samuel Babcock (1760-1813) make him an archetypal psalmodist active during the period from 1790 to 1810. Research on early American Protestant sacred music to date has focused on the major composers and compilers of the period such as William Billings and Andrew Law, and on indexing the repertory. This dissertation approaches the topic from a different historiographical perspective, measuring Babcock against the criteria suggested by musicologist Nym Cooke for a composer more typical of the First New England School. Part I of the dissertation establishes the facts of Babcock's life, analyzes and describes his music, and documents the distribution of his works. His fourth cousin, psalmodist Lemuel Babcock (1748-1835), provides a point of comparison. Samuel Babcock, active during the reform of sacred music at the turn of the nineteenth century, composed music strongly influenced by British Methodist-style psalmody. He selected sacred poetry that inspired him musically, and paid careful attention to text setting. Both Babcocks are remembered as singers, singing masters, choir leaders, and composers. However, Samuel Babcock's music is more "modern" than his cousin's. This study of musical style and other evidence suggests that the few pieces first printed with the ambiguous attribution "Babcock" are very likely by Lemuel Babcock. Part II is a critical edition of both composers' complete works

Interpreting Cycles of Preludes and Fugues by Soviet Composers: Problems of Performance and Perception

The focus of this study is on performance aspects of cycles of Preludes and Fugues by composers from the former Soviet Union. This little-known part of 20th century piano repertoire has been largely neglected by music scholars. In this thesis it is purposely examined from a performer's perspective, with a particular emphasis on study of analytical processes and practical procedures at various stages of performance interpretation. Large-scale polyphonic cycles of preludes and fugues, analogous to the Well-Tempered Clavier by Bach, became phenomenally popular among Soviet composers after the 1950s, with more than 20 substantial cyclic works appearing in the second half of the last century in Russia, Ukraine, Armenia and Uzbekistan. My performance research thesis focuses on the following works: 24 Preludes and Fugues by Dmitri Shostakovich, Rodion Shchedrin, Sergei Slonimsky, Nikolai Kapustin and Dmitri Smirnov; 34 Preludes and Fugues by Valentin Bibik, 12 Preludes and Fugues by Alexander Yakovchuk and 6 Preludes and Fugues by Myroslav Skoryk. These eight cycles by Russian and Ukrainian composers are among the most influential Soviet polyphonic works, most of which are regularly performed in the countries of the ex-Soviet bloc. Although this thesis avoids drawing specific parallels between the historical, political and cultural context and the musical text, one of its main aims is to enhance performers' and listeners' awareness of the contextual complexity of the works under discussion. The main body of my thesis explores the interpretative challenges of the works under discussion, with individual chapters dedicated to such performance and perception aspects as understanding of the overall cyclic structure and programming issues, investigation of the cultural and historical context and its influence on the perception of the Soviet music, approaches to analysing scores, manuscripts and available recordings

Convolution-based classification of audio and symbolic representations of music

We present a novel convolution-based method for classification of audio and symbolic representations of music, which we apply to classification of music by style. Pieces of music are first sampled to pitch–time representations (piano-rolls or spectrograms) and then convolved with a Gaussian filter, before being classified by a support vector machine or by k-nearest neighbours in an ensemble of classifiers. On the well-studied task of discriminating between string quartet movements by Haydn and Mozart, we obtain accuracies that equal the state of the art on two data-sets. However, in multi-class composer identification, methods specialised for classifying symbolic representations of music are more effective. We also performed experiments on symbolic representations, synthetic audio and two different recordings of The Well-Tempered Clavier by J. S. Bach to study the method’s capacity to distinguish preludes from fugues. Our experimental results show that our approach performs similarly on symbolic representations, synthetic audio and audio recordings, setting our method apart from most previous studies that have been designed for use with either audio or symbolic data, but not both