We propose a method for music classification based on the use of convolutional models on symbolic pitch–time representations (i.e. piano-rolls) which we apply to composer recognition. An excerpt of a piece to be classified is first sampled to a 2D pitch–time representation which is then subjected to various transformations, including convolution with predefined filters (Morlet or Gaussian) and classified by means of support vector machines. We combine classifiers based on different pitch representations (MIDI and morphetic pitch) and different filter types and configurations. The method does not require parsing of the music into separate voices, or extraction of any other predefined features prior to processing; instead it is based on the analysis of texture in a 2D pitch–time representation. We show that filtering significantly improves recognition and that the method proves robust to encoding, transposition and amount of information. On discriminating between Haydn and Mozart string quartet movements, our best classifier reaches state-of-the-art performance in leave-one-out cross validation.

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Composer Recognition based on 2D-Filtered Piano-Rolls

One of the most significant aspects of Elliott Carter’s Second String Quartet (1959) is that it represents the composer’s workshop for developing his characteristic harmonic language. Many sketches in the collection depict the composer’s systematic process of understanding the properties of all-interval tetrachords—how they combine into larger units to complete the 5-, 6-, 7-, 8-note collections, the 12-note aggregate, or how they break down into smaller units of dyads and trichords. This process did not come easy to Carter—it took many years before it evolved into a system of chord syntheses. In addition to systematizing chord properties, sketches and documents reveal that Carter studied other methods (serialism) and works of other composers he admired (such as Webern and Schoenberg) while searching for his own way of expression. This type of systematic development, combined with experimentation using different compositional techniques, clearly suggests that Carter was in the developing stages of his own...

Formation of a New Harmonic Language in Elliott Carter’s String Quartet No. 2

This thesis is divided in three parts, the first two of which are theoretical and the third
analytical. Part I is an investigation of Iannis Xenakis’s general theory of composition,
the theory of outside-time musical structures. This theory appears in many of Xenakis’s
writings, sometimes quite idiosyncratically. The aim of this part is to reveal the function
of the non-temporal in Xenakis’s musical structures, by means of a historical approach
through his writings. This exploration serves to unveil certain aspects discussed more
thoroughly through a deconstructive approach. The deconstructive is demonstrated in the
classification of musical structures and aims partly at showing the nature of Time in
Xenakis’s theory.

Part II is preoccupied with Xenakis’s Sieve Theory. In the earlier writings on
Sieve Theory he presented a slightly different approach than in the later, where he also
provided an analytical algorithm that he developed gradually from the mid 1980s until
1990. The rationale of this algorithm and the pitch-sieves of 1980-1993 guides Part III,
which is preoccupied with a methodology of sieve analysis, its application, and an
exploration of the employment of sieves in some of Xenakis’s compositions of the 1980s.
When possible, the analysis takes in consideration the pre-compositional sketches,
available at the Archives Xenakis, Bibliotheque Nationale de France. The sketches reveal
aspects of the application of Sieve Theory, not included in Xenakis’s theoretical writings.
3As with the application of other theories, Xenakis progressed to less formalised
processes. However, this does not mean that Sieve Theory ceased to inform the process
of scale-construction. As the conclusion of this dissertation indicates, he employed Sieve
Theory in order to achieve structures that conform to his general aesthetic principles, that
relate to various degrees of symmetry and periodicity.

Iannis Xenakis and Sieve Theory: An Analysis of the Late Music (1984-1993)

The life of the composer Dmitri Shostakovich features in several contemporary anglophone bio-fictions, both novels and film, raising the question of the larger implications of Shostakovich’s life i...

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/13617427.2020.1754573

Schubert

Papers

The String Quartets