Core Concepts
This article proposes a framework for analyzing and visualizing the overall structure of a musical piece by modeling it as a network of musical elements such as pitches, chords, and rhythms, and applying graph theory and network analysis techniques.
Abstract
The article presents a framework for analyzing and visualizing the structure of a musical piece using graphs and networks. The key points are:
The authors parse digital music notation files (e.g. MIDI, MusicXML) to extract musical elements like pitches, chords, and rhythms, and the relationships between them.
They construct various types of graphs and networks to model these musical elements and their connections, such as a pitch-chord-rhythm (p-c-r) graph, vertical and horizontal pitch class graphs, and chord sequence graphs.
For the resulting graphs, they compute various metrics and perform analysis techniques like centrality measures, entropy calculations, and community detection.
By applying these analyses to a sequence of time windows covering the entire musical piece, they obtain time series and ECG-style plots that visualize how the musical structure evolves over time.
The authors demonstrate their approach on excerpts from classical music works like Bach's The Art of Fugue, and discuss how the network-based analysis can provide insights related to Schenkerian and generative theories of music.
The goal is to develop a computational tool for understanding the general structural elements of a musical fragment, which can be applied to a wide range of musical styles and repertoires beyond the common practice period.
Stats
"#eventos: 34"
"totalDurNotas= 60.5/totalDur= 32.0 da numero promedio de voces por cuarto"
"totalTimesNotas= 100/totalDur= 32.0 da densidad promedio por cuarto"
Quotes
"We believe this method may be extended to deal with electronic textures and continuous sounds in general."
"Certain aspects in our scope are similar to some of those discussed in such papers, yet it constitutes a parallel proposal."
"We focus on the possibilities of computational analysis and visualization that could be useful for contemporary concert music and non-Western repertoires, while seeking consistency with tonal, modal and serial music analysis."