Musical Analysis of Sound Feature Emergences Using Acoustic and Psychoacoustic Descriptors

Abstract

In the 20th and 21st centuries, after the advent of electroacoustic music and its influences in instrumental music, the expansion of the sound palette employed in musical compositions is considerable. Moreover, with recording techniques and technological advances available, a new culture centered on sound became relevant. Along with the expansion of compositional possibilities, new problems in musical analysis arise, such as how to incorporate sound-feature and form emergences in the analysis work. We present a methodology of musical analysis that aims to represent these emergent phenomena that arise through perception by computer-aided tools based on acoustic and psychoacoustic descriptors. These tools developed are discussed, and the information achieved is interpreted from two biases: 1) the emergence of sound features related to the interaction of spectral components, and 2) the emergence of macroform of the musical works by perception. As a conclusion, this research aims to give interpretations of those emergence features in music by means of the analysis of the singularities (saliences and pregnancies) that arise in the works analysed.