Classification Of Musical Objects For Analysis And Composition

This book presents and discusses the fundamental topic of classification of musical objects, such as chords, motifs, and gestures. Their classification deals with the exhibition of isomorphism classes. Our structure types include local and global constructions, the latter being similar to global structures in geometry, such as differentiable manifolds. The discussion extends to the role, which classification plays for the creative construction of musical compositions. Our examples include references to classical compositions, such as Beethoven’s sonatas, and some of the author’s own compositions of classical and jazz styles. We also discuss software that enables the application of classification to musical creativity. The volume is addressed to an audience that would apply classification to programming and creative musical construction.

"The Treatise on musical objects by Pierre Schaeffer is regarded as his most important work on music and its relationship with technology. Schaeffer refers to his earlier research in musique concráete and expands this to suggest a methodology of working with sounds resulting from the recording process. Drawing on acoustics, physics, and physiology, but also philosophy and the relationship between subject and object, Schaeffer's book summarizes his theoretical and practical work in music composition. North and Dack present an important book in the history of ideas in Europe that will resonate far beyond electroacoustic music."--Provided by publisher.

Questions about variation, similarity, enumeration, and classification of musical structures have long intrigued both musicians and mathematicians. Mathematical models can be found from theoretical analysis to actual composition or sound production. Increasingly in the last few decades, musical scholarship has incorporated modern mathematical content. One example is the application of methods from Algebraic Combinatorics, or Topology and Graph Theory, to the classification of different musical objects. However, these applications of mathematics in the understanding of music have also led to interesting open problems in mathematics itself. The reach and depth of the contributions on mathematical music theory presented in this volume is significant. Each contribution is in a section within these subjects: (i) Algebraic and Combinatorial Approaches; (ii) Geometric, Topological, and Graph-Theoretical Approaches; and (iii) Distance and Similarity Measures in Music. remove

This is the first volume of the second edition of the now classic book “The Topos of Music”. The author explains the theory's conceptual framework of denotators and forms, the classification of local and global musical objects, the mathematical models of harmony and counterpoint, and topologies for rhythm and motives.

With contributions by numerous experts

By exploring the many different types and forms of contemporary musical instruments, this book contributes to a better understanding of the conditions of instrumentality in the 21st century. Providing insights from science, humanities and the arts, authors from a wide range of disciplines discuss the following questions: · What are the conditions under which an object is recognized as a musical instrument? · What are the actions and procedures typically associated with musical instruments? · What kind of (mental and physical) knowledge do we access in order to recognize or use something as a musical instrument? · How is this knowledge being shaped by cultural conventions and temporal conditions? · How do algorithmic processes 'change the game' of musical performance, and as a result, how do they affect notions of instrumentality? · How do we address the question of instrumental identity within an instrument's design process? · What properties can be used to differentiate successful and unsuccessful instruments? Do these properties also contribute to the instrumentality of an object in general? What does success mean within an artistic, commercial, technological, or scientific context?

This is an introduction to basic music technology, including acoustics for sound production and analysis, Fourier, frequency modulation, wavelets, and physical modeling and a classification of musical instruments and sound spaces for tuning and counterpoint. The acoustical theory is applied to its implementation in analogue and digital technology, including a detailed discussion of Fast Fourier Transform and MP3 compression. Beyond acoustics, the book discusses important symbolic sound event representation and software as typically realized by MIDI and denotator formalisms. The concluding chapters deal with globalization of music on the Internet, referring to iTunes, Spotify and similar environments. The book will be valuable for students of music, music informatics, and sound engineering.

The present book is the result of a three year research project which investigated the creative act of composing by means of algorithmic composition. Central to the investigation are the compositional strategies of 12 composers, which were documented through a dialogic and cyclic process of modelling and evaluating musical materials. The aesthetic premises and compositional approaches configure a rich spectrum of diverse positions, which is reflected also in the kinds of approaches and methods used. These approaches and methods include the generation and evaluation of chord sequences using genetic algorithms, the application of morphing strategies to research harmonic transformations, an automatic classification of personal preferences via machine learning, and an application of mathematical music theory to the analysis and resynthesis of musical material. The second part of the book features contributions by Sandeep Bhagwati, William Brooks, David Cope, Darla Crispin, Nicolas Donin, and Guerino Mazzola. These authors variously consider the project from different perspectives, offer independent approaches, or provide more general reflections from their respective research fields.

Soft Computing today is a very vast field whose extent is beyond measure. The boundaries of this magnificent field are spreading at an enormous rate making it possible to build computationally intelligent systems that can do virtually anything, even after considering the hostile practical limitations. Soft Computing, mainly comprising of Artificial Neural Networks, Evolutionary Computation, and Fuzzy Logic may itself be insufficient to cater to the needs of various kinds of complex problems. In such a scenario, we need to carry out amalgamation of same or different computing approaches, along with heuristics, to make fabulous systems for problem solving. There is further an attempt to make these computing systems as adaptable as possible, where the value of any parameter is set and continuously modified by the system itself. This book first presents the basic computing techniques, draws special attention towards their advantages and disadvantages, and then motivates their fusion, in a manner to maximize the advantages and minimize the disadvantages. Conceptualization is a key element of the book, where emphasis is on visualizing the dynamics going inside the technique of use, and hence noting the shortcomings. A detailed description of different varieties of hybrid and adaptive computing systems is given, paying special attention towards conceptualization and motivation. Different evolutionary techniques are discussed that hold potential for generation of fairly complex systems. The complete book is supported by the application of these techniques to biometrics. This not only enables better understanding of the techniques with the added application base, it also opens new dimensions of possibilities how multiple biometric modalities can be fused together to make effective and scalable systems.