Melodic Structure Research Articles

“Cognitive and Cultural Dynamics of Melodic Structure: A Study of Post-Skip Reversals in Rast and Nihavent Makams"

Post skip reversals, where a significant melodic leap is followed by a change, in direction have been recognized in Western Classical music but haven't been extensively explored in non-Western traditions like Turkish makam music. We investigated the presence of skip reversals in both the Rast and Nihavent makam within SymbTr encompassing 50 and 45 pieces respectively. To compare types of skip reversals in Rast and Nihavent we categorized all melodic intervals based on their median pitch into four types; landing, approaching, departing and crossing. Chi Squared tests were utilized to analyze the significance of direction changes. Our findings reveal that post skip reversals are prevalent in Turkish makam music. In Rast makam 88.62% of crossing leaps resulted in a change of direction. Similarly, for Nihavent makam, 87.38% of crossing leaps exhibited this pattern. These outcomes support the notion that certain cognitive processes associated with reversals may possess traits that align with theories proposing that melodic skips generate a perceptual imbalance necessitating a reversal. Furthermore, cultural practices and stylistic conventions play a role, in influencing the occurrence of skip reversals. For instance, the strong association between crossing leaps and direction changes in Nihavent makam reflects specific stylistic practices within Turkish classical music, such as the emphasis on maintaining a balanced melodic contour. This indicates that while there are aspects to how we perceive music cultural influences play a role in shaping how these processes are expressed. It shows the interplay, between cognitive tendencies and cultural traditions. The findings focus on the complex interplay between universal cognitive processes, cultural practices and physical constraints, which contribute to a wider understanding of melodic organization in different cultures. In future research, the analysis should expand to include a wider range of makams and incorporate qualitative methods for deeper insight into cultural, historical or performance contexts that influence Post-skip reversal.

Core principles of melodic organisation emerge from transmission chains with random melodies

Music is a product of both biological and cultural evolution. Cultural transmission is the engine of cultural evolution and may play a role in the establishment of musical universals. Here, we examined how transmission dynamics can shape melodic features in music. Specifically, we tested whether random melodic seeds, in their transformation, take on properties known to characterise music within or even across cultures. Using an iterated learning paradigm, we investigated the transmission of random melodic seeds through a chain of non-musician participants (N = 64). We found that melodies reproduced vocally between “generations” became more similar to known musical scales, exhibited a predominance of consonant intervals, and reduced the number of scale degrees used. Additionally, we observed the previously documented tendency for large intervals to be followed by a change in direction, as well as features common to both music and speech including phrase-final lengthening and the Zipfian distribution of signalling units. As participants' vocalisations converged towards greater memorability, they exhibited decreased entropy, and their contours became smoother and more consistent. Finally, certain short melodic patterns became prominent motifs within the incipient musical “traditions” simulated by the chains. These emerging features may reflect a process shaped by (i) cognitive bottlenecks such as learnability; (ii) statistical properties of the processes and structures involved in inter-generational vocal transmission; but also by (iii) idiosyncratic cultural artefacts specific to the lab samples employed. Overall, our results demonstrate that fundamental aspects of melodic structure emerge naturally through the process of cultural transmission, as simulated in the lab.

Music Emotion Classification: A Literature Review

Music, as an art form, combines rhythm and sound to form a functional melodic structure, uniquely capable of conveying emotions non-verbally. Within the domain of Music Information Retrieval (MIR), Music Emotion Classification (MEC) represents a specialized subset dedicated to the identification and labeling of emotional attributes in songs. This is achieved by extracting and comparing features from musical compositions. This research aims to discern the contemporary landscape of research and its associated research gaps in this domain. The study comprised a collection of publications found through searches conducted on Google Scholar between the years 2006 and 2023, with the search terms: Music Emotion Classification, Music Emotion Classification in Sri Lanka, Music Emotion Recognition, and Emotion Classification in Music. This study was narrowed down to the research that utilized audio files for classification. Among the initial set of 42 studies, 20 were selected for detailed analysis using the purposive sampling method. The review encompassed essential aspects, including acoustic feature analysis, emotional modeling, classification methodologies, and performance evaluation. The findings highlighted a paucity of research considering cultural, regional, and linguistic variations. The most often used acoustic features encompassed rhythm, pitch, timbre, spectral, and harmony whereas the most frequently used emotion categories for the classification were happiness, anger, sadness, and relaxation. Support Vector Machine (SVM) was the most used machine learning algorithm for classification, although regression methods, neural network-based approaches, and fuzzy classifications were also explored. Notably, the adoption of multi-modal approaches for emotion classification, as well as multi-labeled emotion classification, remained limited. These insights underscore the need for future research to address the cultural and language diversity of datasets, explore innovative classification techniques, and embrace multi-modal and multi-labeled emotional classification methodologies in the context of music emotion classification within MIR.

이완순 무가의 관용적 선율 고찰 -1982년 살풀이를 중심으로-

This study analyzes her idiomatic melodies and music-making method focusing on two “Chogamangseok Salpuri” pieces of Jindo ssitgimgut (purification ritual in Jindo) performed by a shaman Lee Wansoon and recorded in the field in 1982. The two salpuri (lit. exorcism) pieces—respectively, called (A) and (B)—have four melody types— respectively, called type A, B, C, and D—in common. Type A that appears the most is the wave shape composed of mi', do', la', and so on; the note corresponding to each beat moves down in the form of a wave within one rhythmic pattern. The lyrics of type A is primarily about historical myths. Type B, mi' ascending-descending type or sustaining-descending type, is a melody that ascends or sustains at the first note for more than two beats, and then descends after that. The lyrics is usually the first syllable of a word or phrase, and this melodic structure has the effect of emphasizing the syllable. Type C is a cadence melody that usually follows type A; after the first note, various melodies of ascending, sustaining, and descending movements are formed, and the final note la is continued for more than two beats to end the melody. The lyrics consists of plosive sounds. Last, type D form is mi'-mi♭'-mi', which appears once in both (A) and (B). Even within these idiomatic melodies, however, there is a difference between (A) and (B). For example, type A in (A) mainly consists of a la'-mi' wavy melody, while that in (B) mainly forms a mi'-la-la' wavy melody. In addition, (A) uses type B to emphasize the first word of the phrase, and then composes type A for the next rhythmic pattern, repeating the same word, whereas (B) does not emphasize the word of the phrase and immediately starts the type A. This shows that even if it is the same lyrics, the melody is used differently. Therefore, the analysis of Lee Wonsoon's two salpuri pieces confirms that there exist four idiomatic melodic types, and within this large framework, she creates a shaman song in each performance by improvising with various melody types and lyrics. Even if these two materials alone cannot define her method of making music, it is significant to discover her idiomatic melodic types.

Investigating a Vocal Improvisatory Genre (Mawwāl) in Arab Music: a Case Study of a Mawwāl Performance by Wadī‘ al‐Ṣāfī

ABSTRACTAlthough recent decades have witnessed a significant growth and expansion of studies dealing with the performing practice of Arab music improvisation, most such studies are focused on instrumental, not vocal, performing practices. As a result, Arab vocal performing practice, especially that of vocal improvisatory genres, still lacks a comprehensive theoretical approach. In this article I examine the maqām (Arab modal framework) phenomenon by analysing a piece in its pre‐eminent improvisatory genre (mawwāl) composed and performed by an eminent musician: mawwāl ‘Ṭal al‐Ṣabāḥ’ by Wadī‘ al‐Ṣāfī. Most vocal improvisation is presented in Arab music literature without a defined or definite melodic (or rhythmic) structure. I posit that the mawwāl genre has defined and quasi‐defined structures on the macro and micro levels of the piece, since a major part of those structures is manifested as recurring, defined compositional devices and interrelationships throughout the piece within the improvisational frame of the mawwāl genre, a reflection of its structural intricacy. This article thus contributes to the existing literature on classical Arab vocal performance by implementing the theory of natural schemata as an analytical framework along with a structural analysis based on a detailed descriptive transcription of the piece, and thus characterising the largest and smallest strata of musical structures in the mawwāl genre.

Hindustani classical music revisited statistically: Does the order of Markov chain in the note dependence depend on the raga or the composition?

Rendering musical notes randomly does not create music. To generate music, there has to be a pattern which makes the musical notes dependent. It is therefore of interest to know whether the probability of the next note depends on the current note only or whether it depends on the note(s) prior to the current note. In other words, it is important to explore the orderof Markov chain in the musical piece. In the context of Hindustani classical music, does this order depend on the raga or the composition? The present work addresses this fascinating question and attempts to answer it through Akaike’s information criterion (AIC). It appears, interestingly, that the order of Markov chain is dependent on the raga which has a well defined melodic structure with fixed notes and a set of rules characterizing a particular mood that is conveyed by performance. As long as these rules are maintained, as in a raga bandish, the order of the Markov chain is invariant over the raga compositions.

Melodic Differences Between Styles: Modeling Music With Step Inertia

A well-known phenomenon in melodic structure is “step inertia”: the tendency for a step to be followed by another step in the same direction. There is strong evidence of step inertia in three corpora of Western common-practice melodies: European folk songs, classical instrumental themes, and English hymn tunes. Surprisingly, modern Western popular music does not reflect step inertia. In Billboard’s Hot 100, and Rolling Stone magazine's list of “greatest songs,” inertial (same-direction) steps are less likely than non-inertial ones. To further explore the role of step inertia in different corpora, we created a generative model that assigns probabilities to melodies, considering just four factors: range, pitch proximity, scale-degree frequency within a key, and step inertia. We optimized the weights of these factors for the Essen Folksong Collection and the Billboard corpus, and compared them with n-gram models. The optimal (normalized) weight of the inertia factor is large and positive for the Essen collection (.51) and small for the Billboard corpus (.02). This is further evidence that step inertia plays a much smaller role in popular melodies than common-practice ones, and that non-inertial steps are slightly favored.

Borys Grinchenko: poet, lyrical subject, and epoch

The focus of the paper is on the complicated process of including Borys Grinchenko’s poetic heritage in the cultural history of the Ukrainian people as a nation. Attention is drawn to the erroneous statements in the studies of the 1930s to 1950s and the restoration of a fair assessment later. The paper traces the evolution of Borys Grinchenko’s poetry based on the analysis of particular details in his works and materials of discussion on the recognition of the literary value of his “poetic word”. The texts of his works are analysed as the case study the 1903 lifetime edition “Writings. Volume 1”, which was wrongly underestimated at the time.The innovative tendencies of his poetic thinking can be traced from the beginning of his literary activity to the last years of his life. Attention is drawn to the genres, themes, figurative language, and stylistic features of Grinchenko’s poetry in their evolutionary development (the 1880s through the 1900s). Particularly noteworthy is the rhythmic and melodic structure of the author’s poetry and its gradual changes. His works may be associated with such stylistic systems of Ukrainian poetry as Enlightenment romanticism, neo-romanticism, and symbolism. The edition of Borys Grinchenko’s poetry “Writings. Volume 1”, highly appreciated by Lesia Ukrainka at the time, may serve a code for understanding the peculiarities of his creative style as a poet. In addition to the epic mastery that distinguished the writer, his poetry demonstrated the expressive lyricism of the “poetic word”. One of the peculiarities of Grinchenko’s poetic pieces was cyclization, especially evident in the collection “Minutes”, which was included in the mentioned edition. In the author’s lyrical and confessional preface, he clearly outlines the image of the lyrical hero of his works. The lyrical character and his individual existence are extremely important for Grinchenko as the poet. The final part of the paper formulates the fundamental values of Borys Grinchenko’s life credo. His poetry has been and continues to be a significant and valuable cultural phenomenon, contributing effectively to the establishment of Ukraine as a nation.

К проблеме воплощения богослужебного текста в духовной музыке А. Д. Кастальского (на примере тропарей)

The article is devoted to the methods of musical representation of the content of the liturgical text in the spiritual choral music of A. D. Kastalsky. The creative path of this outstanding musician, his aesthetic views, the main features of the composer's style have been largely studied by now. However, the methods of Kastalsky's refraction of the theological aspects of chants in Russian musicology have not yet been purposefully studied. This article aims to consider specific methods of musical embodiment of liturgical texts in Kastalsky's choral compositions. His polyphonic adaptations of several Znamenny chant troparia are used as material.The methodological base of the presented article is multi-component. The authors are guided by the original analytical technique of Prot. Michael Fortunato, to some extent refract the analytical experience of Prot. Sergius Pravdolyubov. The main methodological basis is the concepts developed by the musical scientists of the scientific school of the Moscow Conservatory - A.N. Myasoedov, V.V. Protopopov, Yu.N. Kholopov and their followers. In particular, the concept of tonal states is widely invoked.The analysis of selected znamenny arrangements of tropar chants includes several aspects, such as: slogo-rhythmic modeling of a verbal text; reduction of the melodic structure of Znamenny chants and understanding of their logic depending on the verbal content; clarification of the relationship of textural, timbre and harmonic features with significant fragments of the text. The authors come to the conclusion that Kastalsky is constantly striving for coloristic, sonant marking of all essential images of the liturgical text, and thereby creates an emotionally rich "translation" of the ancient monodic chant into the modern language of full-sounding polyphony.

De l’« êta négligé » au « pi tiré vers le bas » : problèmes d’identification et de dénomination des signes musicaux d’après le P. Mich. inv. 1205

Abstract P.Mich. inv. 1205 is a small papyrus fragment containing the remains of an instrumental music score. Relying on a paleographic and musical analysis to reinterpret the reading of the most frequent sign, the article substantially modifies the melodic structure, and raises the question of the link between the establishment of intrumental semiography and its nomenclature, leading to a better understanding of tables of musical signs in the treatises copied during the medieval period.

Learning and Recalling Melodies

Using melodic recall paradigm data, we describe an algorithmic approach to assessing melodic learning across multiple attempts. In a first simulation experiment, we reason for using similarity measures to assess melodic recall performance over previously utilized accuracy-based measures. In Experiment 2, with up to six attempts per melody, 31 participants sang back 28 melodies (length 15–48 notes) presented either as a piano sound or a vocal audio excerpt from real pop songs. Our analysis aimed to predict the similarity between the target melody and participants’ sung recalls across successive attempts. Similarity was measured with different algorithmic measures reflecting various structural (e.g., tonality, intervallic) aspects of melodies and overall similarity. However, previous melodic recall research mentioned, but did not model, that the length of the sung recalls tends to increase across attempts, alongside overall performance. Consequently, we modeled how the attempt length changes alongside similarity to meet this omission in the literature. In a mediation analysis, we find that a target melody’s length, but not other melodic features, is the main predictor of similarity via the attempt length. We conclude that sheer length constraints appear to be the main factor when learning melodies long enough to require several attempts to recall. Analytical features of melodic structure may be more important for shorter melodies, or with stimulus sets that are structurally more diverse than those found in the sample of pop songs used in this study.

Singing Ability Assessment: Development and validation of a singing test based on item response theory and a general open-source software environment for singing data

We describe the development of the Singing Ability Assessment (SAA) open-source test environment. The SAA captures and scores different aspects of human singing ability and melodic memory in the context of item response theory. Taking perspectives from both melodic recall and singing accuracy literature, we present results from two online experiments (N = 247; N = 910). On-the-fly audio transcription is produced via a probabilistic algorithm and scored via latent variable approaches. Measures of the ability to sing long notes indicate a three-dimensional principal components analysis solution representing pitch accuracy, pitch volatility and changes in pitch stability (proportion variance explained: 35%; 33%; 32%). For melody singing, a mixed-effects model uses features of melodic structure (e.g., tonality, melody length) to predict overall sung melodic recall performance via a composite score [R2c = .42; R2m = .16]. Additionally, two separate mixed-effects models were constructed to explain performance in singing back melodies in a rhythmic [R2c = .42; R2m = .13] and an arhythmic [R2c = .38; R2m = .11] condition. Results showed that the yielded SAA melodic scores are significantly associated with previously described measures of singing accuracy, the long note singing accuracy measures, demographic variables, and features of participants’ hardware setup. Consequently, we release five R packages which facilitate deploying melodic stimuli online and in laboratory contexts, constructing audio production tests, transcribing audio in the R environment, and deploying the test elements and their supporting models. These are published as open-source, easy to access, and flexible to adapt.

THE INFLUENCE OF EUROPEAN ART ON CHINESE OPERA CULTURE

The article examines the influence of European culture on the origin and development of Beijing opera, focusing on the penetration and assimilation of European opera's characteristic features into Chinese musical culture. It systematically analyzes these innovations within the historical context, elucidating their role and position in the broader Chinese cultural and historical processes. The study reveals that the primary avenue for introducing European musical canons was through school songs, which, due to their simple composition and ease of performance, served as the basis for incorporating structured European approaches into Chinese music. It notes that the creation of the first officially recognized Chinese opera, “Grey-hair Girl”, followed the emergence of Children's Operas, which exhibited elements of Europeanization while retaining their melodic structure. The conclusions highlight that the development of the European experience within the opera genre unfolded in tandem with the evolution of compositional and dramatic patterns derived from Western opera. However, on a musical and stylistic level, Chinese composers remained rooted in the national tradition, endeavoring to achieve varying degrees of successful fusion between Western form and national content. It was only towards the latter part of the 20th century that a harmonious symbiosis began to emerge, integrating the organizational aspects of opera from the European experience with Chinese identity at different levels.

Analisis Struktur Melodi dan Makna Lagu “Sayur Kol” Karya Punxgoaran

Purpose: This research discusses about analysis of the melodic structure of Sayur Kol by Punxgoaran. Sayur Kol was published in 2017. The theoretical basic used in this research is William P. Malm's theory to get a musicological study, and Ferdinand de Saussure's semiotic theory to explain the meaning of this song. The song Sayur Kol by Punxgoaran was performed in the Batak language with Rock and Punk nuances with drums, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Method: In this thesis, the writer uses a qualitative descriptive analysis method. Results and Discussion: The results of the study of the melodic structure of the Sayur Kol song are Song Form with 2 parts consisting of A (a, a'), B (b, b') and the song Sayur Kol performed by Punxgoaran consists of the Intro, the beginning, continuation part, chorus part, interlude part, and outro part. Implication: The meaning contained in song Sayur Kol is about the personal story of the creator, Guido Virdaus Hutagalung, expressing a picture of the situation of the people of North Sumatra when they meet each other and strengthen the relationship between fellow tribes, especially the Toba Batak tribe. Punxgoaran loves and supports the preservation of Batak Cultural Arts.

A Computational Approach to the Detection and Prediction of (Ir)Regularity in Children's Folk Songs

We examine (ir)regularity in the musical structure of 736 monophonic children's folk songs from 22 European countries, by simulating and detecting (ir)regularity with the computational model, IDyOM, and our own algorithm, Ir_Reg, which classifies melodies according to regularity of their musical structure. IDyOM offers a range of viewpoints which allow observation and prediction of various musical features. We used five viewpoints to measure the information content and entropy of musical events in songs. Analysis across the data shows absence of irregular musical structure in children's folk songs from Croatia, Serbia, Turkey, Portugal, Hungary, and Romania. Conversely, absence of regular structure in children's folk songs was found in Great Britain, Norway and Switzerland. Further analysis of (ir)regularity, by individual country, revealed the importance of patterns repeated at pitch in regular songs, and a higher occurrence of transposed repeated patterns in irregular songs. Principal component analysis (PCA) shows the salience of pitch and pitch intervals in the perception of (ir)regular structure. Neither rhythm nor contour affects the perception of regularity. Recurring pulse/meter and arch-like melodic structure were found in the majority of children's folk songs. The study shows that irregularity exists in children's folk songs, and that this genre can be complex.

Explicit processing of melodic structure in congenital amusia can be improved by redescription-associate learning

Congenital amusia is a neurodevelopmental disorder of musical processing. Previous research demonstrates that although explicit musical processing is impaired in congenital amusia, implicit musical processing can be intact. However, little is known about whether implicit knowledge could improve explicit musical processing in individuals with congenital amusia. To this end, we developed a training method utilizing redescription-associate learning, aiming at transferring implicit representations of perceptual states into explicit forms through verbal description and then establishing the associations between the perceptual states reported and responses via feedback, to investigate whether the explicit processing of melodic structure could be improved in individuals with congenital amusia. Sixteen amusics and 11 controls rated the degree of expectedness of melodies during EEG recording before and after training. In the interim, half of the amusics received nine training sessions on melodic structure, while the other half received no training. Results, based on effect size estimation, showed that at pretest, amusics but not controls failed to explicitly distinguish the regular from the irregular melodies and to exhibit an ERAN in response to the irregular endings. At posttest, trained but not untrained amusics performed as well as controls at both the behavioral and neural levels. At the 3-month follow-up, the training effects still maintained. These findings present novel electrophysiological evidence of neural plasticity in the amusic brain, suggesting that redescription-associate learning may be an effective method to remediate impaired explicit processes for individuals with other neurodevelopmental disorders who have intact implicit knowledge.

Implicit learning of melodic structure: A role for pitch?

Implicit learning of melodic structure: A role for pitch?

Temporal Evolution of Makam and Usul Relationship in Turkish Makam

Turkish makam music is transmitted orally and learned through repetition. Most previous computational analysis works focus either on makam (its melodic structure) or usul (its rhythmic pattern) separately. The work presented in this paper performs a combined analysis to explore the descriptive potential of the relationship between these in over 600 makam pieces.

AN EXAMINATION ON THE LIFE AND WORKS OF ÂŞIK DAIMI

A minstrel is a person who is defined as a traveller or local folk poet who gains an identity with different upbringings, can sing poems on different subjects and perform them to the accompaniment of the instrument. Minstrels are folk artists whose roots go back to the Turkish culture of Central Asia before Islam and are known by different names in different Turkish tribes. In this ancient culture, they took on many duties from sorcery to musician. During the period they lived, they played an important role in expressing the feelings and thoughts of the people against various events. In Anatolia, minstrels have undertaken an important mission in terms of reinforcing social unity, uniting people within the framework of the same feeling, and transferring the oral heritage to future generations. In this context, they became the social memory of the period before them and shed light on the period they are in. The main aim of this study is to examine the works of Âşık Daimi, one of the important representatives of the 20th century in the minstrelsy tradition, registered in the TRT Repertoire as the source person. In the works of Âşık Daimi, it is seen that social events have an important place in addition to mystical issues in general. In addition to this, Daimi's upbringing in the minstrelsy tradition, his mastery in the instrument and the richness of the products he produced make him important. In the research, in which data were obtained by using literature review and interview techniques as a method, the life of Âşık Daimi and his place in the minstrelsy tradition, as well as a detailed literary and musical analysis of 22 works that he sourced in the TRT repertoire were included. In this context, considering the poetic structure of the work in literary terms, verse type, verse unit, syllabic meter, rhyme scheme, subject and pseudonyms used in his works; in musical terms, considering the melodic structure of the work, its genre, maqam sequence, rhythm feature, sound width, rhythmic structure, metrical pattern and form were evaluated. In addition, in the study, in which the details of the historical process of the minstrelsy and minstrelsy tradition from Central Asia to Anatolia are mentioned, the current functionality of the tradition is also examined. Keywords: Turkish Folk Music, Minstrelsy Tradition, Âşık Daimi, Musical Analysis, Literary Analysis.

Bandīś-s in khayāl of Indian classical music: a study of selected song-texts with special reference to the bandīś-s of sadāraṇg in Hindustani music

Melody is the soul of Indian classical music. A musician presents different captivating melodic motions of a certain set of notes, showing their diverse permutations and combinations as well as their hidden beauty. This melodic exposition decorates the mind with several melodic expressions and embellishments and is hence referred to as Rāg – which brings aesthetic pleasure. The main objective of this research is the presentation and style of certain rags, as well as the improvisation of the melodic structure. The data obtained by recording the song's melody audio technique and watching the concert live and all of them will be used to analyze and check the composition of the song. The musical analysis is carried out with respect to Rāg. This is because a composition like a mirror reflects a complete picture of an Rāg. It reveals and also retains its characteristics, such as its ascending and descending notes, its dominating notes, other sub-dominant notes, its intricacies, and its special combination of notes, i.e., svara-sañgati. The different Bandīś-s in an Rāg highlight the different aspects and shades in which it can be rendered. The results of this study indicate that compositions in Indian music are a combination of traits that includes the aspects of the musical structure, vocal style and techniques, instrumentation, rhythmic style, and poetry. Bandīś in Khyāl of Hindustani music refers to the text of the composition. The text is marked by the elegant use of words. The musical structure of Bandīś-s is comprised of certain essential laya (Tempo), tāl (beat), Rāg (melody), and dhātu-s (the melodic component)