Musical Rules Research Articles

A fuzzy model for optical recognition of musical scores

Optical music recognition aims at reading automatically scanned scores in order to convert them in an electronic format, such as a midi file. We only consider here classical monophonic music: we exclude any music written on several staves, but also any music that contains chords. In order to overcome recognition failures due to the lack of methods dealing with structural information, non-local rules and corrections, we propose a recognition approach integrating structural information in the form of relationships between symbols and of musical rules. Another contribution of this paper is to solve ambiguities by accounting for sources of imprecision and uncertainty, within the fuzzy set and possibility theory framework. We add to a single symbol analysis several rules for checking the consistency of hypotheses: graphical consistency (compatibility between accidental and note, between grace note and note, between note and augmentation dot, etc.), and syntactic consistency (accidentals, tonality, metric). All these rules are combined in order to lead to better decisions. Experimental results on 65 music sheets show that our approach leads to very good results, and is able to correct errors made by other approaches, such as the one of SmartScore.

AI and music from composition to expressive performance

In this article, we first survey the three major types of computer music systems based on AI techniques: (1) compositional, (2) improvisational, and (3) performance systems. Representative examples of each type are briefly described. Then, we look in more detail at the problem of endowing the resulting performances with the expressiveness that characterizes human-generated music. This is one of the most challenging aspects of computer music that has been addressed just recently. The main problem in modeling expressiveness is to grasp the performer's touch, that is, the knowledge applied when performing a score. Humans acquire it through a long process of observation and imitation. For this reason, previous approaches, based on following musical rules trying to capture interpretation knowledge, had serious limitations. An alternative approach, much closer to the observation-imitation process observed in humans, is that of directly using the interpretation knowledge implicit in examples extracted from recordings of human performers instead of trying to make explicit such knowledge. In the last part of the article, we report on a performance system, SAXEX, based on this alternative approach, that is capable of generating high-quality expressive solo performances of jazz ballads based on examples of human performers within a case-based reasoning (CBR) system.

Customizable software-based digital wavetable synthesizer

A software based digital wavetable synthesizer receives musical data from an external source and generates a plurality of digital sample values corresponding to the musical source. The musical source may be a synthesized music source or an actual instrument. In an exemplary embodiment, a sample for each semi-tone for the musical instrument is sampled and stored. A subsequent process analyzes the sampled and selects a single cycle representing that musical instrument at each of the semi-tones. The data is subsequently normalized such that each cycle begins with a zero value and the normalized data is stored in a data structure along with labels indicative of the musical instrument and the musical note. In subsequent use, the user can create synthesized music by selecting the desired instrument and notes. Additional musical rules, such as rules associated with Indian classical music, may be applied to specify the synthesis process. The musical notes, generated in accordance with the associated musical rules are provided to a music output file, which may be converted into a conventional waveform format and played on a conventional sound card. The invention is totally software based and does not rely on synthesized data stored in firmware or hardware on a special musical synthesizer card. Instead, any conventional sound card may be readily used thus allowing portability of the music synthesizer between computing platforms.

A New Method for Analysing and Representing Singing

In psychological and cross-cultural (e.g. ethnomusicological) research the analysis of song-singing had always been an intricate and serious obstacle. Singing is a transient and mostly unstable patterning of vocal sounds that is organised by applying more or less linguistic and musical rules. Traditionally, a sung performance has been analysed by mere listening and by using the western musical notation for representing its structure. Since this method neglects any in-between categories with respect to pitch and time, it proves to be culturally biased. However, acoustic measures as used in speech analysis have had limited application and were primarily used to quantify isolated parameters of sung performances. For analysing and representing the organisation of pitch in relation to the syllables of the lyrics, and its temporal structure, we devised a computer-aided method in combination with a new symbolic representation. The computer program provides detailed acoustic measures on pitch and time. We reduce the redundancy of the detailed information by a notation system that shows pitch and time each on a continuous scale, including glissandi, breathing, joint singing, and instructional help. By combining acoustic with auditory analyses, this method allows to describe reliably sung performance's structures with respect to the organisation of pitches, together with syllables, and their timing. The resulting configuration of data includes qualitative aspects such as stable and unstable pitches. Such microanalytic descriptions are very useful for studying the nature of sung performances, their structures, and processes of change due to learning and development.

Musical Grammar and the Study of Cognitive Processes of Composition

The concept of “grammar” is at the basis both of listening to and of composing music. Music grammar includes morphology and syntax, the former being defined as the identification of different categories of musical structures, the latter as that of rules connecting morphological unities. In listening to music morphology corresponds to “categorical” perception and syntax to “structural” perception. In composing and in music analysis, the intuitive procedures of perceptions must be transformed in explicitly rational knowledge: morphology corresponds to a clear definition of musical concepts and syntax to that of musical rules. According to the theory, morphology and syntax correspond to actual cognitive processes; however a distinction is made between a grammar, and its uses, that is, its applications in composing and listening activities. Some critical remarks on this point are made in respect of the tradition of cognitive studies. A further aspect of grammar is then underlined: the distinction between syntactic and semantic rules. The aim of both of these is to build expressive structures which can be understood and interpreted by means of socially legitimated hermeneutic conventions. In this sense grammar is to be conceived of not only as a psychic, but also as a social instrument. In order to understand the mental procedures of composition, all the methods so far proposed risk remaining at the surface of the problems to which they are applied unless they are integrated into amore accurate and adequate consideration of grammatical thinking.

Musical rules and musical signification: hermeneutic problems

Musical signification — according to the main hypothesis of this paper — is based on a syntactic organization of micro-components (minimal units of signification). Each of them contributes to the global meaning of the more extended units of which they are a part. Such a meaning is neither to be intended as a sum of its components, nor as a fixed and well definable entity. On the contrary, it is open to the possibility of several coherent interpretations. Coherence is based partly on markers of a syntactic nature, partly on the possibility of finding a correspondence between the musical fragment and a human experience. Interpretation is linked to procedures based on symbolic thinking. This componential theory is applied to the analysis of a short fragment of Schubert.

The KTH Rule System for Singing Synthesis

This article contains a description of rules controlling the singing synthesis at the Department of Speech Communication and Music Acoustics at the Royal Institute of Technology (Swedish Royal Institute of Technology-KTH) in Stockholm. The synthesis of singing has been important in our research for a long time. The rules controlling the singing synthesizer MUSSE DIG are implemented in a programming environment originally developed for a text-to-speech system. There are context-dependent rules for pronunciation of vowels and consonants, as well as rules for musical performance. The latter rules create crescendi, tempo, and vibrato changes, etc., depending on the musical context as defined by a score file. The rules were developed using an analysis-by-synthesis strategy, i.e., vocal performances are synthesized, the result is analyzed, and then the rules that control the synthesis are accordingly improved. In this article, musical rules, and general rules for consonants, vowels, and some special singing techniques are described.

The abilities of a musical savant and his family

The ability of a male autistic savant (TR) to play two unfamiliar piano pieces after listening to a tape-recording was tested, closely following the procedures of Sloboda, Hermelin, and O'Connor (1985). Other components of TR's musical ability--pitch recognition, improvisation, and ability to provide harmonic accompaniment--were also examined. TR's musical precocity was examined in relation to his general level of intellectual functioning as indexed by a battery of standardized psychological tests of intelligence, memory, reading, visual organization, and creativity. His parents and two male siblings also completed tests of intelligence. Results from psychometric testing indicated that TR has idiosyncratic levels of cognitive functioning with difficulties in verbal reasoning but high levels of concentration and memory. His speed of information processing, as indicated by Inspection Time, and was better than average. TR demonstrated perfect pitch recognition and other family members also demonstrated excellent relative pitch. TR's ability to recall and perform structured music within both the diatonic and whole-tone systems was exceptional but dependent upon his familiarity with musical structure and was therefore organized and rule-driven. Furthermore, TR demonstrated competence in improvisation and composition, albeit restricted by his adherence to structural representations of familiar musical rules.

"Let Freedom Ring!": Free Jazz and African-American Politics

nO n August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King stood before 250,000 black and white Americans and proclaimed, Let freedom ring! urging citizens to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful of brotherhood (Words 97). In his writings, King called for the creation of a redemptive in which mutual regard and equality would replace racial hierarchy and distrust. In this community, argued King, cohesiveness would not hamper, but instead would enhance, individuality. Three years earlier such a community had been represented in aesthetic form by eight musicians in a recording studio. If the result was not a symphony per se, these musicians nevertheless pioneered a style of music called free jazz that musically expressed some of the ideas about freedom that were becoming prominent in the struggles of African-Americans for justice. This essay argues that free jazz represented political freedom in two ways: negatively, by rejecting musical rules and conventions that restricted individual expression and discarding traditional hierarchical roles within the small group; and positively, by musically cre-

The Semantics of Musical Hierarchies

The use of grammars for representing music has been widely studied for applications in music analysis and composition (e.g., Roads 1979; Holtzman 1981; Bel 1990). More powerful computational models arose later in the form of logic programming representations, and, more recently, constraint programming has emerged as a useful paradigm. Constraint programming seems to be more efficient and more appropriate for representing musical rules such as counterpoint (Ovans 1990, 1991) and harmony (Tsang 1991). The representation we propose in this article lies somewhere between grammars and constraint programming because attributed grammars provide both syntactic representation and automatic propagation of attributes. Another application of attributed grammars to music has been reported by Szeider (1991), who provides a semantics of musical scores. In our work, we do not intend to represent music in its entirety; rather, we are investigating a small part that is essential to any musical process-the hierarchical representation of a complex musical piece and the computation of properties at any node of the hierarchy. This is the beginning of a study that seems very promising. Any piece of music can be seen either as a single list of events or a construction of superimposition or concatenation of other pieces. We are interested here in such a hierarchical structure. Musical characteris-

Linguistic prosody and musical meter in song

Four studies addressed the relation between linguistic prosody and musical meter in song. Analyses of song compositions indicated that the Compound Word and Nuclear Stress rules of English coincided with musical rules of metrical accent. Vocalists were asked to perform songs in which compound words and nuclear stress phrases were aligned or misaligned with the musical meter. Syllables aligned with either linguistic or musical accent were sung with greater duration than unaccented syllables. Additional analyses of adjective-noun phrases in song compositions showed musical accent aligned more often with nouns in clause-initial phrases and with adjectives in determiner-initial phrases, consistent with phonological principles of cliticization. Singers' performances showed larger durations for nouns than adjectives in clause-initial than in determiner-initial phrases. Prosodic structure and musical meter had independent effects on sung durations, suggesting that they contribute separately to song performance but with similar organizational principles.

TALENT AND INTELLIGENCE

Abstract Specific outstanding abilities are found at all levels of general cognitive functioning, and are independent of it Furthermore, people who are gifted in a particular area but differ widely in general intelligence nevertheless seem to utilise similar mental processes and structures. Thus idiot‐savant musicians remember, as well as generate, musical patterns derived from familiar musical rules, and their ability is not based on rote memory. Calendri‐cal calculators use the rules and structures on which the Gregorian Calendar is based to calculate dates rapidly. Children with low intelligence but outstanding drawing ability need less visual information for the identification of pictures than those who cannot draw but have high IQ's.

Qur'an Reciters in Competition in Kuala Lumpur

he Qur'an being the cornerstone of Islam, it is constantly read or recited throughout the Muslim world, on special occasions (holidays, funerals), in everyday salat (formal worship), as well as for no reason other than its central place in the Muslim's everyday life. Indeed it is almost impossible not to hear some Qur'anic recitation from the mosques, the radio or television, during any one day in a Muslim country. Owing partly to its literary nature (a form of rhythmic poetical prose), and partly to the special care and attention given to the recitation of the holy words, the reading of the Qur'an was never a plain reading, but rather a or of its verses. This chanting started as early as the seventh century, and with time, became subject to rigorous musical rules. It is always improvised by the reader, so that recitations vary from reader to reader-or rather from reading to reading. The reader usually knows the Qur'an by heart. He/she has to follow the order of the verses and chapters, but can start and stop at whichever verse he/she likes. Although the reading is subject to some major rules validated by Muslim jurists and musicologists, the fact that different cultures adopted Islam and the improvisational nature of the cantillation allow for some regional variations. It can be shown that the Qur'anic chanting is the model for other forms of musical art in an Islamic culture so that it carries at the same time a great religious and a great esthetic value. Yet at some point the latter was overlooked because of the attention given to new musical forms revealed by the encounter with Western civilisation, and there was a tendency to merely imitate past performances. More recently, however, a widening and deepening interest among Muslims in the artful recitation of their scripture is evidenced in the competitions which take place each year during the fasting month (Ramadan) in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia. Malaysia, one of some forty countries in the world in which more than 50% of the population describe themselves as Muslim, is not the only Muslim country to stage recitation competitions. Egypt and Saudi Arabia provide other notable examples. Annual competitions have been held in North America for the past three years. Even in Malaysia itself, it is not only in Kuala Lumpur that contests are held. The Ministry of Education also organizes competitions in Qur'an recitation among students of primary and

The shape of music inthe rules of the game

The shape of music in<i>the rules of the game</i>

Musical rules and pitch judgment

Observed psychoacoustic events are often incompatible with musical knowledge. The point has been made particularly in the realm of pitch theory. This paper will contend that it is not the case that musical knowledge does not apply to psychophysical tasks or the musical knowledge fails to correspond with musical practice. Rather, the judgment of pitch is the result of a complex decision involving both the identification of pitch pattern and the operation of a rule‐based structural system assigning the functional values of pitches. Different tasks or task demands may assign different relative weights to the system's operators. Whatever the aesthetic merits of Western‐European tonality, the experimental study of it uncovers a powerful system of pitch organization and reveals the delicate interplay between perception and cognition. Examples will be drawn from our work on interval and melody recognition. [Work supported by Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada and Queen's University Advisory Research Committee.]

Perception of structure in short melodic sequences.

Three experiments studied the perception of tone sequences having various degrees of musical structure. Ratings of perceived structure and ease of recognition in transposition were both influenced by harmonic progression (as defined by music theory), the contour (directional changes in pitch), and the excursion or repetition pattern within the sequence. The relation between the original and transposed sequence also affected ease of recognition in accordance with the number of tones shared between the two sequences. The results are described in terms of the abstraction and analysis of levels of pitch relations, an analysis conducted even by musically untrained listeners. The conceptual framework emphasizes the application of musical rules as an illustration of rules governing auditory sequences in general.

Perception of structure in short melodic sequences.

Three experiments studied the perception of tone sequences having various degrees of musical structure. Ratings of perceived structure and ease of recognition in transposition were both influenced by harmonic progression (as defined by music theory), the contour (directional changes in pitch), and the excursion or repetition pattern within the sequence. The relation between the original and transposed sequence also affected ease of recognition in accordance with the number of tones shared between the two sequences. The results are described in terms of the abstraction and analysis of levels of pitch relations, an analysis conducted even by musically untrained listeners. The conceptual framework emphasizes the application of musical rules as an illustration of rules governing auditory sequences in general.

The pythagorean comma: Weber's anticipation of sociology in a new key

Throughout its history the Game was closely allied with music, and usually proceeded according to musical or mathematical rules. One theme, two themes, or three themes were stated, elaborated, varied, and underwent a development quite similar to that of the theme in a Bach fugue or a concerto movement.… Experts and Masters of the Game freely wove the initial theme into unlimited combinations [p. 30].

Melody recognition: the experimental application of musical rules.

Melody recognition: the experimental application of musical rules.

Razsežnosti snovanja Darijana Božiča

Razsežnosti snovanja Darijana Božiča