High-quality annotations of harmonic analysis are scarce. Furthermore, the existing data usually follows different conventions for spelling scale degrees, inversions, and special chords (e.g., cadential six-four). There have been efforts for standardizing the notation of harmonic analysis annotations, however, these have not been very successful…[Read more]

MIDI, the musical instrument digital interface, is a highly successful protocol for conveying and, through the use of Standard MIDI Files, representing musical performance information. However, it lacks the ability to convey notation information. The newly approved MIDI 2.0 protocol gives us a chance to rectify that by including notation…[Read more]

Poster

The computational study of figured bass remains an under-researched topic, likely due to the lack of machine-
readable datasets. This paper is intended to address the paucity of digital figured bass data by 1) investigating procedures for systematically annotating symbolic music files with figured bass, and 2) producing and releasing a model…[Read more]

This paper employs a digital project entitled “Visualizing Operatic Fame” to delve into three major issues in graph theory and network science: searching and pathfinding, influencers and hubs, and clusters and communities.

The discrete Fourier transform is a mathematically robust way of modeling various musical phenomena. I use the music21 Python module to interpret the pitch classes of an encoded musical score through the discrete Fourier transform (DFT). This methodology offers a broad view of the backgrounded scales and pitch-class collections of a piece. I have…[Read more]

Conference proceedings of the Music Encoding Conference 2020 with Foreword by Richard Freedman and Anna J. Kijas.

Digital methods have begun to make their way into the research practices of music scholars, and most this insurgence can be attributed to the rise of the discipline of music technology. Though music encoding is becoming increasingly prevalent among the research and teaching methodologies of music scholars, evidence gathered from course…[Read more]

In this progress report, we describe the issues encountered during the design and implementation of TabMEI, a new MEI module for encoding instrumental tablatures. We discuss the main challenges faced and lay out our workflow for implementing the TabMEI module. In addition, we present a number of example encodings, and we describe anticipated…[Read more]

Poster

Underground ‘extreme’ styles of heavy metal are marked apart by other sub-genres of metal by their adoption of a punk rock ethos and overt rejection of commercialism. In metal culture being ‘true’ is a by-word for a perceived authenticity of the artist(s) in their commitment to the culture and integrity as composers/performers. Authenticity is a…[Read more]

The music of Soundgarden represents a unique blend of heavy metal power and and art-rock sensitivity, this is clearly displayed in the song ‘Outshined’. The unorthodox harmony, use of odd time time signatures and sectional variation seem to blur genre boundaries within rock music and also lend the music a sense of emotional instability that runs…[Read more]

Guitar solos were a defining foundational aspects in the early formative years of what would become known as heavy metal music. Though Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath has been largely credited as the most influential guitarist on the wider genre, this essay argues that it is the style of Ritchie Blackmore that has been of greater importance and…[Read more]