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

Comparing Probabilistic Models for Melodic Sequences

Modelling the real world complexity of music is a challenge for machine learning. We address the task of modeling melodic sequences from the same music genre. We perform a comparative analysis of two probabilistic models; a Dirichlet Variable Length Markov Model (Dirichlet-VMM) and a Time Convolutional Restricted Boltzmann Machine (TC-RBM). We show that the TC-RBM learns descriptive music features, such as underlying chords and typical melody transitions and dynamics. We assess the models for future prediction and compare their performance to a VMM, which is the current state of the art in melody generation. We show that both models perform significantly better than the VMM, with the Dirichlet-VMM marginally outperforming the TC-RBM. Finally, we evaluate the short order statistics of the models, using the Kullback-Leibler divergence between test sequences and model samples, and show that our proposed methods match the statistics of the music genre significantly better than the VMM.Comment: in Proceedings of the ECML-PKDD 2011. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 6913, pp. 289-304. Springer (2011

From holism to compositionality: memes and the evolution of segmentation, syntax, and signification in music and language

Steven Mithen argues that language evolved from an antecedent he terms “Hmmmmm, [meaning it was] Holistic, manipulative, multi-modal, musical and mimetic”. Owing to certain innate and learned factors, a capacity for segmentation and cross-stream mapping in early Homo sapiens broke the continuous line of Hmmmmm, creating discrete replicated units which, with the initial support of Hmmmmm, eventually became the semantically freighted words of modern language. That which remained after what was a bifurcation of Hmmmmm arguably survived as music, existing as a sound stream segmented into discrete units, although one without the explicit and relatively fixed semantic content of language. All three types of utterance – the parent Hmmmmm, language, and music – are amenable to a memetic interpretation which applies Universal Darwinism to what are understood as language and musical memes. On the basis of Peter Carruthers’ distinction between ‘cognitivism’ and ‘communicativism’ in language, and William Calvin’s theories of cortical information encoding, a framework is hypothesized for the semantic and syntactic associations between, on the one hand, the sonic patterns of language memes (‘lexemes’) and of musical memes (‘musemes’) and, on the other hand, ‘mentalese’ conceptual structures, in Chomsky’s ‘Logical Form’ (LF)

Spatial and Psychoacoustic Factors in Atonal Prolongation

Lerdahl's atonal analysis takes the prolongation approach. He explains the method through examples in Weber and others

Developing a Scheduling Module For Construction Management Labs

The Cal Poly Construction Management Department is renowned as one of the best programs in the nation. From holding one of the highest competition success rates to almost 100% job placement right out of school for graduates, Cal Poly undoubtedly lives up to that reputation. With that, in order to ensure that the department continues to produce well rounded graduates, it is crucial to regularly assess any potential shortcomings that the construction management curriculum may possess. As one of the three sides of the construction management triangle, the ability to read and create a construction schedule is a crucial skill for any project engineer or manager to possess. There is a broad spectrum of elements that go into creating a project schedule: from the programs, to the sequencing, to the overall logistics. This topic is something that is lacking in the current curriculum. This construction scheduling module would add to the overall Cal Poly Construction Management degree as well as benefit the graduates for the entirety of their careers

Composing Notes

In my mid-twenties I experienced a prolonged creative block caused by the lack of a systematic compositional method. Composers of earlier generations had belonged to aesthetic camps that provided the security of reasonably complete aesthetic worldviews. If you were in the neoclassic camp, you embraced an urbane use of the past, employing certain compositional techniques; if you were in the serialist camp, you embraced an idea of the future, employing other techniques. With the explosion of the postwar avant-garde, however, anything became permissible and therefore nothing had the stamp of authority. The compositional systems that were fashionable in the 1960s tended to be opaque to the informed listener when hearing music composed with them; one could not discern the methods of construction without concentrated study. The justification for these systems was at bottom merely historical: composer A influenced composer B, who influenced composer C, and so on. According to the prevailing neo-Hegelian ideology, each step was obligatory and pointed the way to future progress. A composer who took the next dialectical step was viewed as significant. If you were not on the wave of the future, you were irrelevant to those who believed in that particular wave. By the late 1960s, however, there were many competing waves, and they effectively cancelled each other out. I wished to base my composing not on hidden codes and historical contingency but on the nature of the musical mind. Noam Chomsky's theory of generative linguistics, which advanced a program for the study of the human capacity for language, was to investigate particular grammars, the specifics of which are learned by experience, as a means toward characterizing universal grammar, which represents the computational mechanisms of the innate linguistic mental module and which underlies the learnability of particular grammars. This way of thinking about a mental capacity was revolutionary at the time, and it laid part of the foundation for what has since then become the cognitive sciences. The postwar musical avant-garde had found its natural affinity in the behaviorist philosophy that was ascendant in the 1940s and 1950s. Behaviorists believed that the mind was initially an undifferentiated blank slate that was completely malleable, and that learning took place entirely by exposure and association. This view suited historically contingent music that employed arbitrary codes. I sensed in the Chomskian approach a fresh way to think about music. If it was possible to study the language capacity, it should also be possible to study the musical capacity. If this could be accomplished in any detail, it should then be feasible to use this knowledge to guide the development of compositional methods that are structurally rich yet cognitively transparent. Admittedly, this was a utopian quest conceived in broad strokes, but it provided a program for my own development. This program began to materialize after I met Ray Jackendoff, a linguist who had independently reached similar conclusions about the application of the Chomskian framework to music. We concentrated on the particular grammar of Classical tonal music, but our deeper goal was to articulate universal principles of musical cognition. Not only did theoretical ideas find an adapted place in my music, but my musical imagination and creative needs also suggested theoretical ideas, sometimes well in advance of anything I was able to state systematically. This interaction between composition and theory has persisted to the present day

A Memetic Analysis of a Phrase by Beethoven: Calvinian Perspectives on Similarity and Lexicon-Abstraction

This article discusses some general issues arising from the study of similarity in music, both human-conducted and computer-aided, and then progresses to a consideration of similarity relationships between patterns in a phrase by Beethoven, from the first movement of the Piano Sonata in A flat major op. 110 (1821), and various potential memetic precursors. This analysis is followed by a consideration of how the kinds of similarity identified in the Beethoven phrase might be understood in psychological/conceptual and then neurobiological terms, the latter by means of William Calvin’s Hexagonal Cloning Theory. This theory offers a mechanism for the operation of David Cope’s concept of the lexicon, conceived here as a museme allele-class. I conclude by attempting to correlate and map the various spaces within which memetic replication occurs

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

Spring School on Language, Music, and Cognition: Organizing Events in Time

The interdisciplinary spring school “Language, music, and cognition: Organizing events in time” was held from February 26 to March 2, 2018 at the Institute of Musicology of the University of Cologne. Language, speech, and music as events in time were explored from different perspectives including evolutionary biology, social cognition, developmental psychology, cognitive neuroscience of speech, language, and communication, as well as computational and biological approaches to language and music. There were 10 lectures, 4 workshops, and 1 student poster session. Overall, the spring school investigated language and music as neurocognitive systems and focused on a mechanistic approach exploring the neural substrates underlying musical, linguistic, social, and emotional processes and behaviors. In particular, researchers approached questions concerning cognitive processes, computational procedures, and neural mechanisms underlying the temporal organization of language and music, mainly from two perspectives: one was concerned with syntax or structural representations of language and music as neurocognitive systems (i.e., an intrapersonal perspective), while the other emphasized social interaction and emotions in their communicative function (i.e., an interpersonal perspective). The spring school not only acted as a platform for knowledge transfer and exchange but also generated a number of important research questions as challenges for future investigations

Real options approach for a staged field development with optional wells

With the decreasing average size of new discoveries in mature production areas, the uncertainties in the base of oil field investment decisions are continually increasing. Fewer appraisal wells, which allow to decrease the amount of subsurface uncertainty, are typically drilled before the development of a small field compared to large fields. In this context, novel solutions must be established to commercialize small discoveries under technical and market uncertainties. In such conditions, managerial flexibilities, which enable to change the course of the project in the event of new information acquisition, must be critically considered in the investment valuation process. Combining the real options approach and decision analysis, we establish a novel model to identify the additional value created by a sequential drilling strategy for field development under oil price and resource uncertainty. In particular, we capture the sequence of the key investment and operating decisions pertaining to a marginal field development in cooperation with an oil industry partner, which corresponds to a synthetic yet realistic project case. By considering the flexibility in dividing the production well drilling into two stages, we adopt the least-squares Monte Carlo algorithm to evaluate the option to wait to expand the production by drilling additional wells. Furthermore, we identify the conditions in which the staged (phased) development is preferable against standard development. We propose a decision rule to determine the optimal expansion timing based on the acquisition of new information on the reservoir and oil price uncertainty. Our results suggest that staged development carries large upside potential for the marginal field development under extensive reservoir uncertainty. In addition, partial hedging against the downside risks in the staged development can enhance the project's economy in a sufficiently significant manner to justify investment.publishedVersio