1,141 research outputs found
Maximum entropy models capture melodic styles
We introduce a Maximum Entropy model able to capture the statistics of
melodies in music. The model can be used to generate new melodies that emulate
the style of the musical corpus which was used to train it. Instead of using
the body interactions of order Markov models, traditionally used in
automatic music generation, we use a nearest neighbour model with pairwise
interactions only. In that way, we keep the number of parameters low and avoid
over-fitting problems typical of Markov models. We show that long-range musical
phrases don't need to be explicitly enforced using high-order Markov
interactions, but can instead emerge from multiple, competing, pairwise
interactions. We validate our Maximum Entropy model by contrasting how much the
generated sequences capture the style of the original corpus without
plagiarizing it. To this end we use a data-compression approach to discriminate
the levels of borrowing and innovation featured by the artificial sequences.
The results show that our modelling scheme outperforms both fixed-order and
variable-order Markov models. This shows that, despite being based only on
pairwise interactions, this Maximum Entropy scheme opens the possibility to
generate musically sensible alterations of the original phrases, providing a
way to generate innovation
Predictive uncertainty in auditory sequence processing
Copyright © 2014 Hansen and Pearce. This is an open-access article distributed under
the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution
or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance
with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted
which does not comply with these terms
Generation of folk song melodies using Bayes transforms
The paper introduces the `Bayes transform', a mathematical procedure for putting data into a hierarchical representation. Applicable to any type of data, the procedure yields interesting results when applied to sequences. In this case, the representation obtained implicitly models the repetition hierarchy of the source. There are then natural applications to music. Derivation of Bayes transforms can be the means of determining the repetition hierarchy of note sequences (melodies) in an empirical and domain-general way. The paper investigates application of this approach to Folk Song, examining the results that can be obtained by treating such transforms as generative models
Information dynamics: patterns of expectation and surprise in the perception of music
This is a postprint of an article submitted for consideration in Connection Science © 2009 [copyright Taylor & Francis]; Connection Science is available online at:http://www.tandfonline.com/openurl?genre=article&issn=0954-0091&volume=21&issue=2-3&spage=8
Computational modeling of improvisation in Turkish folk music using Variable-Length Markov Models
The thesis describes a new database of uzun havas, a non-metered structured improvisation form in Turkish folk music, and a system, which uses Variable-Length Markov Models (VLMMs) to predict the melody in the uzun hava form. The database consists of 77 songs, encompassing 10849 notes, and it is used to train multiple viewpoints, where each event in a musical sequence are represented by parallel descriptors such as Durations and Notes. The thesis also introduces pitch-related viewpoints that are specifically aimed to model the unique melodic properties of makam music. The predictability of the system is quantitatively evaluated by an entropy based scheme. In the experiments, the results from the pitch-related viewpoints mapping 12-tone-scale of Western classical theory and 17 tone-scale of Turkish folk music are compared. It is shown that VLMMs are highly predictive in the note progressions of the transcriptions of uzun havas. This suggests that VLMMs may be applied to makam-based and non-metered musical forms, in addition to Western musical styles. To the best of knowledge, the work presents the first symbolic, machine-readable database and the first application of computational modeling in Turkish folk music.MSCommittee Chair: Parag Chordia; Committee Member: Gil Weinberg; Committee Member: Jason Freema
Statistical learning and probabilistic prediction in music cognition: mechanisms of stylistic enculturation
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) funding via grant EP/M000702/1
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Some Aspects of Pedagogical Corpora
This essay focuses on the characteristics of corpora drawn from pedagogical materials and contrasts them with the properties of corpora of larger repertoires. Two case studies show pedagogical corpora to contain relatively more chromaticism, and to devote more of their probability mass to low-frequency events. This is likely due to the formatting of and motivation behind classroom materials (for example, focusing proportionately more resources on difficult concepts). I argue that my observations challenge the utility of using pedagogical corpora within research into implicit learning. I also suggest that these datasets are uniquely situated to yield insights into explicit learning, and into how musical traditions are represented in the classroom
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