Topology of Networks in Generalized Musical Spaces

The abstraction of musical structures (notes, melodies, chords, harmonic or rhythmic progressions, etc.) as mathematical objects in a geometrical space is one of the great accomplishments of contemporary music theory. Building on this foundation, I generalize the concept of musical spaces as networks and derive functional principles of compositional design by the direct analysis of the network topology. This approach provides a novel framework for the analysis and quantification of similarity of musical objects and structures, and suggests a way to relate such measures to the human perception of different musical entities. Finally, the analysis of a single work or a corpus of compositions as complex networks provides alternative ways of interpreting the compositional process of a composer by quantifying emergent behaviors with well-established statistical mechanics techniques. Interpreting the latter as probabilistic randomness in the network, I develop novel compositional design frameworks that are central to my own artistic research

Why musical memory can be preserved in advanced Alzheimer's disease

Musical memory is relatively preserved in Alzheimer's disease and other dementias. In a 7 Tesla functional MRI study employing multi-voxel pattern analysis, Jacobsen et al. identify brain regions encoding long-term musical memory in young healthy controls, and show that these same regions display relatively little atrophy and hypometabolism in patients with Alzheimer's disease.See Clark and Warren (doi:10.1093/brain/awv148) for a scientific commentary on this article. Musical memory is relatively preserved in Alzheimer's disease and other dementias. In a 7 Tesla functional MRI study employing multi-voxel pattern analysis, Jacobsen et al. identify brain regions encoding long-term musical memory in young healthy controls, and show that these same regions display relatively little atrophy and hypometabolism in patients with Alzheimer's disease.See Clark and Warren (doi:10.1093/awv148) for a scientific commentary on this article

Analysis of analysis: importance of different musical parameters for Schenkerian analysis

While criteria for Schenkerian analysis have been much discussed, such discussions have generally not been informed by data. Kirlin [Kirlin, Phillip B., 2014 “A Probabilistic Model of Hierarchical Music Analysis.” Ph.D. thesis, University of Massachusetts Amherst] has begun to fill this vacuum with a corpus of textbook Schenkerian analyses encoded using data structures suggested byYust [Yust, Jason, 2006 “Formal Models of Prolongation.” Ph.D. thesis, University of Washington] and a machine learning algorithm based on this dataset that can produce analyses with a reasonable degree of accuracy. In this work, we examine what musical features (scale degree, harmony, metrical weight) are most significant in the performance of Kirlin's algorithm.Accepted manuscrip

Musical Tradition in Megalithic Site of Indonesian Gunung Padang?

The paper reports a possibilities of musical traditions of ancient civilization who built the sites discovered in Gunung Padang, West Java, Indonesia. Particular group of the stones in the megalithic site happens to have relatively high frequency that might have correspondence with standard western musical scale. From the samples recorded at the site, we do the power spectral analysis to have the dominant frequency within the audio and mapped the result to MIDI numbers. We showed that the obtained four notes interestingly have particular places in modern musical scale

"New Songs of the Battlefield": Songs and Memories of the Chinese Cultural Revolution

This dissertation focuses on a five-volume anthology of songs published from 1972 to 1976 known as "Zhandi Xinge," literally "New Songs of the Battlefield." The songs represent a significant portion of the limited musical expression during a period in China known as the Cultural Revolution (1966-76). Published and approved by the Chinese Communist Party, the anthology appeared at a time when artistic and musical activities were extremely restricted. The government utilized this particular musical form for multiple goals, including the propagation of political ideologies, stimulation of party support, and education of the masses. Based upon original research and personal interviews, the dissertation provides the first documentation and analysis of the anthology in any language. Analysis focuses on the official ideology as situated in its socio-historical context, and an examination of individual reception and memory. The study begins with an introduction to the Cultural Revolution period, followed by an investigation of the composition, editing, compilation, themes, texts, and musical characteristics of the anthology. The dissertation concludes with an analysis of the contemporary memory of Cultural Revolution songs while considering concepts of music, memory, and nostalgia. The analysis reveals that the major factors influencing how the music is remembered and who remembers it, is dependent upon a combination of features including music and memory, generational imprinting and changes in contemporary Chinese society

Usability of Musical Digital Libraries: a Multimodal Analysis.

There has been substantial research on technical aspects of musical digital libraries, but comparatively little on usability aspects. We have evaluated four web-accessible music libraries, focusing particularly on features that are particular to music libraries, such as music retrieval mechanisms. Although the original focus of the work was on how modalities are combined within the interactions with such libraries, that was not where the main difficulties were found. Libraries were generally well designed for use of different modalities. The main challenges identified relate to the details of melody matching and to simplifying the choices of file format. These issues are discussed in detail. 1