Theoretic and artistic research

studying opportunities of symbiosis of Western and non-Western

musical idiom

Olmo Cornelis

Goal of this lecture:

– Introduce my research

– Possibilities for PhD

Outline

Introduction• Background

Problem

Definition

Methodology

Case studies

Conclusion

Background

Olmo Cornelis- Musicology @ Ghent University

- Composition @ University College Ghent

- PhD @ University College Ghent / Ghent University

Previous work: DEKKMMA

“Digitization of the Ethnomusicological Sound Archive of the Royal Museum for Central Africa”

DEKKMMA

• Digitization of the sound archive:- Audio: 50.000 sound recordings – 3.000 hours of

music - 33.000 items digitized.- Meta-data : 35.000 items digitized- Provide contextual data

• Development of database and website

• Exploration of MIR-techniques.

http://music.africamuseum.be/

http://music.africamuseum.be/

Deliver detailed descriptions of music from another culture- Different from Western musical idiom- (till now) Western concepts were used

- Correct descriptions are needed for:- Online collections- Research- Respect cultural heritage

Actual problem

Objective measurement:

- Not using Western musicological assumptions

- Approach actual characteristics

Music Information RetrievalSignal based research

Computer assisted analysis

Method

Music Information Retrieval

Nowadays:

- audio is a digital object

- huge online collections

- personal consumption

=> Music discovery!

Music Information Retrieval

- MIR: describes content of music

- Many applications

- Search/retrieve/organize

- Three levels- Signal => physical- Symbolic => musical symbols- Semantic => metadata

Music Information Retrieval

Many applications:

- Identification, plagiarism detection, copyright monitoring, version detection, melody finder, alignment, recommendation, sounds like, genre detection, segmentation, instrumentation, organization by metadata, mood, artist…

– domain specific techniques is required to approach the particular characteristics and constraints of different ethnic music styles.

– Need for an interdisciplinary research field.– Automated approaches are needed because of large

archives.

MIR considerations

MethodEthnic music?

Three categories:– Ethnic music (in strict sense)

From cultures without written tradition

– Non-Western classical music– Religious and court music from cultures with a written – tradition outside Europe

– Folk music– From written culture, but not part of a classical

tradition

Specifities

– large variability of music, users, search intentions and expectations.

– Metadata, content-based description, musical concepts are fundamentally different from Western standards.

Method

Work PathStudy field of problem

Definition (definiëring en afbakening)

Theoretical analysis / set up framework (methodology)

Cooperation musicologist and computer engineer

Testing existing applications

Build platform for ‘objective’ analysis

Case studies

Result

Composition

Composition

Composition

Composition

Concert

Methodology TARSOS- Pre-processing:

- Audio signal improvement:- Noise reduction- Signal optimization

- Source separation (ONO2010)- Band pass filters

- Processing:- (existing) algorithms- Annotation optimization

- Post-processing:- Interpretation- Visualization- Export

- Data- Graphical

SIGNAL LEVEL• Test of available pitch trackers.• Representation of output• Real-time analysis• Optimization results

SYMBOLIC LEVEL• Peak extraction (automated and manual correction)• Peak analysis

– Correlation

OUTPUT• Sonification• Export

Pitch Analysis

Periodicity Analysis of African Rhythms

Periodicity Analysis of African Rhythms

SOM

SOM

Meta data

Web tagging

- Power of quantity

- Recommendation

http://sixdegrees.hu/last.fm/interactive_map.html

TshisaasjTshisajiTshisanjiChisanziSanziSanzaSansaEsanzoIssanjiKisanziKassandjiKassayo

NgombiKombiKembeEkembeIkembeDikembeLikembeKalimbeMalimbaMarimbaIrimbaIlimbaLimbaKadimba

Metadata

Rethinking of the MIR research practice:– Need for opening up the culturally biased MIR tools

to all types of music.– More close collaboration between engineers and

(ethno)musicologists is required.– Reduction to familiar Western musical parameters

(e.g. score notation) can be useful for providing high-level access to collections, but may loose much of the rich and lively texture of this music.

– Often no ground truth.

Audio might not be sufficient to describe and/or retrieve ethnic music:

-> The idea of separating sound from the rest of its physical environment (movement, smell, taste, colour) may well be a weird “invention” of the West.

=> We cannot understand ethnic music correct without its social function and context!

Olmo.cornelis@hogent.be

http://music.africamuseum.be

http://tarsos.0110.be

Next step

Bachelor => acquire

Master => apply

PhD => generate

Possibilities- At University College Ghent

- 2-4 projects- PhD

- At University Ghent- Bof, internal projects…

- National scholarship- FWO, IWT, Hercules

- Abroad- Fulbright, BAEF