Theoretic and artistic research studying opportunities of symbiosis

of Western and non-Western musical idiom

(2008-2014)

Olmo Cornelis

OutlineIntroduction• 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 I

How to transfer this knowledge into an artistic production?

How to transform musical elements into another culture?

How to enrich a compositional language with specific ethnic musical characteristics?

How to create a personal compositional idiom with implicit influences?

Actual problem II

Work PathStudy of problem: research question

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 (diverse output)

Listen and encounter

Define research question

Set up frame work (methodology)

Experimental phase

Composition

Experiment

Evaluation

Composition

Concert

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

Historical tendencies

- Initially- Aversion towards music

- Music connected with dance and rituals

- After WO2- Collecting systematically- Describing semantically

- 21th Century- Digitization (conservation, accessibility)- Computational ethnomusicology

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

expectations.– Metadata, content-based description, musical concepts are

fundamentally different from Western standards.

(MIR) considerations

Work PathStudy of problem: research question

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

Listen and encounter

Define research question

Set up frame work (methodology)

Experimental phase

Composition

Experiment

Evaluation

Composition

Concert

Artistic research- Composition (imho):

- Innovative element- Content - Coherence- Aesthetic component

- Ethnic music: kaleidoscope of sounds- Symbioses: added value of two components

=> Develop a personal idiom with implicit influence

Musical elements

Musical elements

Text Timbre Pitch Time Dynamics

Musical elements

Musical elements

Musical elements

Axes:- Explicit <---------------------------------> Implicit- Effect <---------------------------------> Concept- Form <-----------------------------------> Musical- Music an Sich <-------------------> Functional- High level <---------------------> Low level MP- Physical <--------------------------------> Virtual- … <-------------------> …

Musical elements

Musical elements

Approach Artistic Research

1. Acquire knowledge and specificities of ethnic music

=> scientific study

2. Set up compositional experiments

=> in exhaustive range of possibilities

3. Create framework to work in

=> see previous slides

4. Create (with implicit ethnic influence)

=> in a personal style

Results

Framework 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• Peak analysis

– Correlation

OUTPUT• Sonification• Export

Framework TARSOS

Demo

Exploring African Tone Scales

Audio set:

• 901 audio files from the RMCA-archive

• Solo pieces played on:– Zither– Flute– Thumb piano – Musical bow

Exploring African Tone Scales

Remarkable finding 1:

the evolution of the increasing number of pitches in the scale through time.

Exploring African Tone Scales

Remarkable finding 2:

Increase of ‘regular’ intervals in recent years.

Remarkable finding 3:

Specific ‘irregular’ intervals (e.g. 160 or 370 cents)

Interval < 1960 1960-75 > 1975

min.2nd 1,46 1,87 2,20

maj.2nd 1,57 1,71 5,20

min.3rd 2,26 3,39 2,84

maj.3rd 1,25 1,28 2,78

4th/5th 2,55 2,56 5,31

sum 9,10 10,81 18,33

Pitch (melody)Language steers melos:

Ex.: Lisaka:

march

promise

poison

=> mono syllabic

=> anti-melismatic

=> verse: no identical melody

=> polyphony: parallel (no counterpoint)

Ngomi ngomi:

Rhythm and tempo

Preliminary research:

Experiment: Tempo extractionbeat / pulse annotationby human and by pc

Goal:- human tempo perception- set of audio with ground truth- test quality beat algorithms

Tempo

Set up:

- 70 audio fragments, 20 sec each

- 10 beat trackers

- 10 persons

- Task: tap the tempo

Temposong nr no.6 no.20 no.30 no.31 no.49 no.69 no.1

subject 1 129 65 190 72 92 46 53

subject 2 129 65 63 144 111 186 122

subject 3 129 65 63 95 46 121 107

subject 4 129 127 129 142 130 140 115

subject 5 129 x 69 144 178 238 121

subject 6 129 124 63 47 92 92 117

subject 7 129 132 63 144 92 93 221

subject 8 129 64 63 73 122 69 94

subject 9 129 130 125 96 44 92 65

median tempo 129 65 63 144 92 92 107-121

consistency

identic tempo 9 4 6 4 3 3 6

tempo octave 0 4 2 2 2 2 2

binary/ternary 0 0 1 3 0 3 0

other relation 0 0 0 0 4 1 1

meter 2 2 3 3 5 2 1

Microtiming

Rhythm

Western conceptually different:

Divisive, Z/L, symmetry

In 8: 3/3/2, 3/2/3, 2/3/3, 1/3/2/2, 1/2/1/2/2

Ewe drumming

EME- Electronic sound and

music controller, based on human movement and using custom made wireless motion sensors

- Hardware technology, software applications, music theory and concepts of Embodied Music Cognition

EMEApplications:demo, for musicians and non-musicians, a real-

time sound controlArtistic performance, i.c. Con Golese, a piece for

tape and voice, where an opera singer could control the tape composition through her gestures while performing. Bodily expressions - often gestures - ensued on the vocal part, feel natural and cause a closer blending of voice and tape. The possible real-time interaction of a performer with a tape composition creates new opportunities for electronic compositions.

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!

Next- Composition

- Dag van het Onderzoek (March 2011)

- New proposals (COST, Tetra, FET Open)

- Pitch- Finalize application- Article methodology TARSOS (nearly finished)- Article application TARSOS (several options)

- Rhythm - Put documentation and experiment into article (advanced)- Set up framework for TARSOS

Dissemination

Publications

Compositions

Activities

Website

Doctoral Schools

Publications2010

- Cornelis O., Lesaffre M., Moelants D., Leman M., 'Access to ethnic music: advances and perspectives in content-based music information retrieval', Signal Processing, Elsevier, 2010 - Lidy T., Silla C.N., Cornelis O., Gouyon F., Rauber A. ,Kaestner C.A.A., Koerich A.L., 'Western vs. Ethnic Music: On the Suitability of State-of-the-art Music Retrieval Methods for Analyzing, Structuring and Accessing Ethnic Music Collections', Signal Processing, Elsevier, 2010 - Cornelis O., 'Het etnomusicologisch klankarchief van het KMMA, digitaliseren en beyond…', in Handboek Muzikaal Erfgoed (Ed. Schreurs E.), Resonant, 2010, in press

2009 - Cornelis O., Moelants D., Leman M., 'Global access to ethnic Music: the next big challenge?' Proceedings ISMIR 2009, Kobe, Japan. http://www.columbia.edu/~tb2332/fmir/Papers/Moelants-fmir.pdf - Moelants D., Cornelis O., Leman M., 'Exploring African tone scales', Proceedings ISMIR, (Kobe, Japan), 2009 - Lesaffre, M., Cornelis, O., Moelants, D., Leman, M., 'Integration of Music Information Retrieval techniques into the practice of ethnic music collections', Proceedings Unlocking Audio 2 (London), 2009

2008 - Antonopoulos I., Cornelis O., Moelants D., Leman M., Pikrakis A., 'Music Retrieval by Rhythmic Similarity applied on Greek and African Traditional Music', Proceedings, ISMIR 2007 - De Mey M., Cornelis O., Leman M., 'The IPEM_EME: a Wireless Music Controller for Real-time Music Interaction', Proceedings ICAD 2008, Paris - Cornelis O., De Mey M., Leman M., 'EME: a wireless music controller for Real-Time Music Interaction', Proceedings ARTECH 2008, Porto

Compositions

- Shaken- Con Golese- Nelumbo

- EME experiment:- ICAD- ARTECH- RESONANT- E-Dinges

Doctoral Schools

Website

http://webs.hogent.be/olmocornelis/index.html

http://tarsos.0110.be

30%

- Coaching students in Master

- Follow up English Master students

- Guide Potential PhD students

- New means:- Hercules- TETRA- COST- FET Open

Olmo.cornelis@hogent.be

http://tarsos.0110.be

http://music.africamuseum.be

http://webs.hogent.be/olmocornelis