This paper presents a new symbolic corpus of musical themes from the complete Star Wars trilogies (Episodes I-IX) by John Williams. The corpus files are made available in multiple formats (.krn, .sib., and .musicxml) and include melodic, harmonic, and formal information. The Star Wars Thematic Corpus (SWTC) contains a total of 64 distinctive, recurring, and symbolically meaningful themes and motifs, commonly referred to as leitmotifs. Through this corpus we also introduce a new humdrum standard for non-functional harmony encodings, **harte (Harte et al., 2005; Harte, 2010). This report details the motivation, describes the transcription and encoding processes, and provides some brief summary statistics. While relatively small in scale, the SWTC represents a unified collection from one of the most prolific and influential composers of the 20th and 21st centuries, and the under-studied subset of film and multimedia musical material in general. We hope the SWTC will provide insights into John Williams’ compositional style, as well as prove useful in comparisons against other thematic corpora from film and beyond.
本文从约翰·威廉姆斯的《星球大战》三部曲(第1 - 9集)中提取了一个新的音乐主题符号语料库。语料库文件以多种格式提供(.krn， .sib。和.musicxml)，包括旋律、和声和形式信息。《星球大战》主题语料库(SWTC)共包含64个独特的、反复出现的、具有象征意义的主题和母题，通常被称为主题母题。通过这个语料库，我们还引入了一个新的非功能和谐编码标准，**harte (harte et al.， 2005;哈特,2010)。本报告详细介绍了动机，描述了转录和编码过程，并提供了一些简要的汇总统计数据。虽然规模相对较小，但SWTC代表了20世纪和21世纪最多产和最有影响力的作曲家之一的统一收藏，以及电影和多媒体音乐材料中未被充分研究的子集。我们希望SWTC将提供洞察约翰·威廉姆斯的作曲风格，以及证明与其他主题语料库从电影和超越有用的比较。
{"title":"Presenting the SWTC: A Symbolic Corpus of Themes from John Williams’ Star Wars Episodes I-IX","authors":"Claire Arthur, Frank Lehman, John McNamara","doi":"10.18061/emr.v17i2.8927","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18061/emr.v17i2.8927","url":null,"abstract":"This paper presents a new symbolic corpus of musical themes from the complete Star Wars trilogies (Episodes I-IX) by John Williams. The corpus files are made available in multiple formats (.krn, .sib., and .musicxml) and include melodic, harmonic, and formal information. The Star Wars Thematic Corpus (SWTC) contains a total of 64 distinctive, recurring, and symbolically meaningful themes and motifs, commonly referred to as leitmotifs. Through this corpus we also introduce a new humdrum standard for non-functional harmony encodings, **harte (Harte et al., 2005; Harte, 2010). This report details the motivation, describes the transcription and encoding processes, and provides some brief summary statistics. While relatively small in scale, the SWTC represents a unified collection from one of the most prolific and influential composers of the 20th and 21st centuries, and the under-studied subset of film and multimedia musical material in general. We hope the SWTC will provide insights into John Williams’ compositional style, as well as prove useful in comparisons against other thematic corpora from film and beyond.","PeriodicalId":44128,"journal":{"name":"Empirical Musicology Review","volume":" 18","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135192354","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
I comment on Clark and Arthur's response to a YouTuber’s claim of the death of melody for which they used corpus analysis and statistical methods of computational musicology. While I basically appreciate the effort, I also will discuss three pertinent problems I see ingrained here: whether such claims can be substantiated in any form in the first place, and how to react to dubious claims disseminated from YouTube musicology, and I will also shortly discuss some methodological issues.
{"title":"Did Melody Become a Schrödinger Cat? Commentary on Clark & Arthur","authors":"Klaus Frieler","doi":"10.18061/emr.v17i2.9548","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18061/emr.v17i2.9548","url":null,"abstract":"I comment on Clark and Arthur's response to a YouTuber’s claim of the death of melody for which they used corpus analysis and statistical methods of computational musicology. While I basically appreciate the effort, I also will discuss three pertinent problems I see ingrained here: whether such claims can be substantiated in any form in the first place, and how to react to dubious claims disseminated from YouTube musicology, and I will also shortly discuss some methodological issues.","PeriodicalId":44128,"journal":{"name":"Empirical Musicology Review","volume":" 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135241278","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Statistics derived from the Essen Folksong Collection have widely been used as a proxy for general stylistic norms familiar to Western listeners. Since the specific facets of contemporary musical experience best modeled by a corpus of nineteenth-century European folksongs remain ambiguous, this study tests whether Essen-like music might be familiar to North American listeners through common children’s songs. Comparison with a corpus of 38 English-language children’s songs highly popular in North America finds that scale degrees from Essen and the children’s song corpus have near-perfect correlations in frequency profiles as well as high to very high correlations in tonal expectations and 4-grams. Profiles of scale degrees’ downbeat probabilities and average durations have moderate to high correlations for the diatonic but not the total chromatic. Overall, profiles of scale-degree behavior from the children’s song corpus match profiles from Essen more closely than do profiles from another corpus of music widely familiar to contemporary listeners (Billboard Hot 100 songs) and similarly closely as a corpus of nineteenth-century common-practice German vocal music (Schubert songs). For contemporary North American listeners, studies relying on Essen might plausibly be reinterpreted in terms of Essen acting as a corpus of early musical experience although the generalizability of Essen-derived statistics likely depends on the precise statistics being measured.
{"title":"Essen as a Corpus of Early Musical Experience","authors":"Niels J. Verosky","doi":"10.18061/emr.v17i2.9266","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18061/emr.v17i2.9266","url":null,"abstract":"Statistics derived from the Essen Folksong Collection have widely been used as a proxy for general stylistic norms familiar to Western listeners. Since the specific facets of contemporary musical experience best modeled by a corpus of nineteenth-century European folksongs remain ambiguous, this study tests whether Essen-like music might be familiar to North American listeners through common children’s songs. Comparison with a corpus of 38 English-language children’s songs highly popular in North America finds that scale degrees from Essen and the children’s song corpus have near-perfect correlations in frequency profiles as well as high to very high correlations in tonal expectations and 4-grams. Profiles of scale degrees’ downbeat probabilities and average durations have moderate to high correlations for the diatonic but not the total chromatic. Overall, profiles of scale-degree behavior from the children’s song corpus match profiles from Essen more closely than do profiles from another corpus of music widely familiar to contemporary listeners (Billboard Hot 100 songs) and similarly closely as a corpus of nineteenth-century common-practice German vocal music (Schubert songs). For contemporary North American listeners, studies relying on Essen might plausibly be reinterpreted in terms of Essen acting as a corpus of early musical experience although the generalizability of Essen-derived statistics likely depends on the precise statistics being measured.","PeriodicalId":44128,"journal":{"name":"Empirical Musicology Review","volume":" 116","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135241136","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The unfinished final Contrapunctus from Bach’s posthumously-published Kunst der Fuge has received several dozen completions over the past century. Although the majority of these have been published and recorded, none has yet established themselves as the leading solution among performers, and this may have more to do with their perceived ‘Bach-ness’ than the undoubted contrapuntal skill and ingenuity that they each demonstrate. This study uses an established information-theoretical method drawn from mathematics to explore the extent to which it is possible to ‘measure’ the similarity of these reconstructions to the original, and so determine which are closest to the musical lines of Bach’s existing opening of Contrapunctus XIV.
{"title":"An Information-Theoretical Method for Comparing Completions of Contrapunctus XIV from Bach’s Art of Fugue","authors":"Iván Paz, F. Knights, Pablo Padilla, Dan Tidhar","doi":"10.18061/emr.v17i1.7544","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18061/emr.v17i1.7544","url":null,"abstract":"The unfinished final Contrapunctus from Bach’s posthumously-published Kunst der Fuge has received several dozen completions over the past century. Although the majority of these have been published and recorded, none has yet established themselves as the leading solution among performers, and this may have more to do with their perceived ‘Bach-ness’ than the undoubted contrapuntal skill and ingenuity that they each demonstrate. This study uses an established information-theoretical method drawn from mathematics to explore the extent to which it is possible to ‘measure’ the similarity of these reconstructions to the original, and so determine which are closest to the musical lines of Bach’s existing opening of Contrapunctus XIV.","PeriodicalId":44128,"journal":{"name":"Empirical Musicology Review","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-08-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41970284","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Whosampled.com is a website that hosts user-compiled lists of samples, covers, and remixes of pre-existing music. This article will evaluate the accuracy of the information on whosampled.com through cases studies on the music of Bruno Mars, Janelle Monáe, Dua Lipa, and the reported samples of Classical music, to determine which types of entries are most likely to be accurate and why. While the site is an informative resource for exploring clear examples of direct samples in genres like hip hop, it is less reliable in documenting other forms of borrowing, especially in genres in which digital sampling is not commonly practiced.
Whosampled.com是一个网站，提供用户汇编的样本、翻唱和现有音乐的混音列表。本文将通过对Bruno Mars, Janelle Monáe, Dua Lipa的音乐和报告的古典音乐样本的案例研究来评估whosampled.com上信息的准确性，以确定哪种类型的条目最可能是准确的，以及为什么。虽然该网站是探索嘻哈等类型中直接采样的明确例子的信息资源，但它在记录其他形式的借用方面不太可靠，特别是在数字采样不常用的类型中。
{"title":"How Accurate is whosampled.com?: Exploring the reliability of a user-generated resource","authors":"Jeremy Orosz","doi":"10.18061/emr.v17i1.8641","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18061/emr.v17i1.8641","url":null,"abstract":"Whosampled.com is a website that hosts user-compiled lists of samples, covers, and remixes of pre-existing music. This article will evaluate the accuracy of the information on whosampled.com through cases studies on the music of Bruno Mars, Janelle Monáe, Dua Lipa, and the reported samples of Classical music, to determine which types of entries are most likely to be accurate and why. While the site is an informative resource for exploring clear examples of direct samples in genres like hip hop, it is less reliable in documenting other forms of borrowing, especially in genres in which digital sampling is not commonly practiced.","PeriodicalId":44128,"journal":{"name":"Empirical Musicology Review","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-08-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44706325","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Information entropy can be a powerful tool for analyzing differences in musical style as suggested in Paz et al. (2022). The application of such a tool, however, requires unambiguous operationalization of the variables being measured, and establishment of clear relations between the variables and the distinguishing features of the style. Without these, interpreting entropy, or any other relative measure of difference, leads to no useful conclusions regarding the similarity between style.
{"title":"Commentary on “An Information-Theoretical Method for Comparing Completions of Contrapunctus XIV from Bach’s Art of Fugue”","authors":"Stefanie Acevedo","doi":"10.18061/emr.v17i1.9158","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18061/emr.v17i1.9158","url":null,"abstract":"Information entropy can be a powerful tool for analyzing differences in musical style as suggested in Paz et al. (2022). The application of such a tool, however, requires unambiguous operationalization of the variables being measured, and establishment of clear relations between the variables and the distinguishing features of the style. Without these, interpreting entropy, or any other relative measure of difference, leads to no useful conclusions regarding the similarity between style.","PeriodicalId":44128,"journal":{"name":"Empirical Musicology Review","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-08-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44540299","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This commentary responds to Orosz’s recent EMR article, which presents research on the accuracy of user-generated information on the whosampled.com website. In general, we find Orosz’s main conclusions—that the accuracy of an entry tends to relate to the type of sample (direct or interpolated), how distinct the sample is, and the style of music—are convincing and well-supported by examples. That said, we believe Orosz’s ultimate appraisal of the web site as an invaluable resource to be contingent on the user. From the viewpoint of a music theorist such as Orosz, the web site may indeed be a beneficial resource. But for other users, especially students aspiring to create popular music, a lack of education about the legal issues surrounding the web site may foster a problematic perspective on music sampling.
{"title":"Blurred Lines in Allegations of Musical Intertextuality: A Response to Orosz","authors":"Trevor de Clercq, Deborah Wagnon","doi":"10.18061/emr.v17i1.9168","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18061/emr.v17i1.9168","url":null,"abstract":"This commentary responds to Orosz’s recent EMR article, which presents research on the accuracy of user-generated information on the whosampled.com website. In general, we find Orosz’s main conclusions—that the accuracy of an entry tends to relate to the type of sample (direct or interpolated), how distinct the sample is, and the style of music—are convincing and well-supported by examples. That said, we believe Orosz’s ultimate appraisal of the web site as an invaluable resource to be contingent on the user. From the viewpoint of a music theorist such as Orosz, the web site may indeed be a beneficial resource. But for other users, especially students aspiring to create popular music, a lack of education about the legal issues surrounding the web site may foster a problematic perspective on music sampling.","PeriodicalId":44128,"journal":{"name":"Empirical Musicology Review","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-08-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44464236","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In this study, we conceptually replicated two experiments by Crespo-Bojorque and Toro (2016; Experiments 4a & 5a) in an attempt to corroborate their finding of improved performance in abstract pattern learning within sequences of conventionally consonant versus dissonant dyads. In addition, to determine whether the processing advantages for consonance that they reported were due to the ratio simplicity or the familiarity of the stimuli, we added a condition in which participants were either presented with unconventionally tuned small versus large integer-ratio dyads. Results failed to replicate Crespo-Bojorque and Toro’s (2016) original findings: Neither conventionally consonant nor unconventionally tuned small integer-ratio dyads conferred any advantage in pattern learning or generalization. However, in a post hoc analysis using a subsample of participants with no music training, there was evidence that initial pattern learning was more efficient when the patterns were embedded within familiar as opposed to unconventionally tuned dyads. This is consistent with Crespo-Bojorque and Toro’s (2016) proposition that interval familiarity may bolster abstract pattern detection. Discussion centers on the need for additional research on the impact of consonance on pattern learning, highlighting the importance of adjudicating between the effects of ratio simplicity and enculturation.
{"title":"Reexamining the Effects of Ratio Simplicity and Familiarity on Abstract Pattern Learning in Dyad Sequences","authors":"R. Friedman, Douglas A. Kowalewski, Sijia E. Song","doi":"10.18061/emr.v17i1.8446","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18061/emr.v17i1.8446","url":null,"abstract":"In this study, we conceptually replicated two experiments by Crespo-Bojorque and Toro (2016; Experiments 4a & 5a) in an attempt to corroborate their finding of improved performance in abstract pattern learning within sequences of conventionally consonant versus dissonant dyads. In addition, to determine whether the processing advantages for consonance that they reported were due to the ratio simplicity or the familiarity of the stimuli, we added a condition in which participants were either presented with unconventionally tuned small versus large integer-ratio dyads. Results failed to replicate Crespo-Bojorque and Toro’s (2016) original findings: Neither conventionally consonant nor unconventionally tuned small integer-ratio dyads conferred any advantage in pattern learning or generalization. However, in a post hoc analysis using a subsample of participants with no music training, there was evidence that initial pattern learning was more efficient when the patterns were embedded within familiar as opposed to unconventionally tuned dyads. This is consistent with Crespo-Bojorque and Toro’s (2016) proposition that interval familiarity may bolster abstract pattern detection. Discussion centers on the need for additional research on the impact of consonance on pattern learning, highlighting the importance of adjudicating between the effects of ratio simplicity and enculturation.","PeriodicalId":44128,"journal":{"name":"Empirical Musicology Review","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-08-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49361674","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This report summarizes the development and application of a demographic encoding model designed to assist researchers in aligning dataset diversity with real-world diversity in popular-music corpus studies. Drawing on sampling strategies in machine-learning research and encoding procedures in health sciences and the humanities, the model and its associated open-access data provides researchers with a tool to generate more inclusive databases along the parameters of race, ethnicity, and gender. The model itself attempts to reconcile the intersectional boundaries of personal identity with the binarity required by statistical encoding and analysis. Importantly, it facilitates a mindful approach through conditional parameters; for example, by minimizing the risk of tokenizing minoritized artists in multi-member ensembles by considering said artist’s agency and demographic proportion within the group. Applying the model to artist samples from various popular-music corpora affirms the underrepresentation of non-white and non-male artists in related research. In response, the report outlines how a researcher might utilize intentional demographic sampling when developing future corpus-based popular-music studies.
{"title":"A Demographic Sampling Model and Database for Addressing Racial, Ethnic, and Gender Bias in Popular-music Empirical Research","authors":"Nicholas J. Shea","doi":"10.18061/emr.v17i1.8531","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18061/emr.v17i1.8531","url":null,"abstract":"This report summarizes the development and application of a demographic encoding model designed to assist researchers in aligning dataset diversity with real-world diversity in popular-music corpus studies. Drawing on sampling strategies in machine-learning research and encoding procedures in health sciences and the humanities, the model and its associated open-access data provides researchers with a tool to generate more inclusive databases along the parameters of race, ethnicity, and gender. The model itself attempts to reconcile the intersectional boundaries of personal identity with the binarity required by statistical encoding and analysis. Importantly, it facilitates a mindful approach through conditional parameters; for example, by minimizing the risk of tokenizing minoritized artists in multi-member ensembles by considering said artist’s agency and demographic proportion within the group. Applying the model to artist samples from various popular-music corpora affirms the underrepresentation of non-white and non-male artists in related research. In response, the report outlines how a researcher might utilize intentional demographic sampling when developing future corpus-based popular-music studies.","PeriodicalId":44128,"journal":{"name":"Empirical Musicology Review","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-08-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48685742","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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