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A computer-assisted approach to micro-analysis of melodic lines

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Footnotes

  1. Heinrich Schenker,Harmony, trans. by Elisabeth Mann Borgese (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1954) pp. 4–5.

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  2. Karl Eschman,Changing Forms in Modern Music (Boston: E.C. Schirmer Music Company, 1945) p. 23.

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  3. Rudolph Reti,The Thematic Process in Music (London: Faber and Faber, 1961) p. 70.

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  4. Bela Bartok,Rumanian Folk Music, ed. by Benjamin Suchoff, 3 vols. (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1967), back portion of dust cover.

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  5. The original study included a detailed explanation of the encoding system which used punch cards. The author has since developed a second FORTRAN-language time-sharing program which has significantly speeded the encoding process. Examples of the three formats developed for this study are shown in fig. 1.

  6. The program also provided information concerning the frequency of occurrence for melodic intervals found in the excerpt under analysis. The importance of this type of information has been well established by Otto Ortmann and others. However, since computer-assisted interval analysis was not original with this study, this feature of the program will not be discussed further here.

  7. It should be noted, however, that the total content of linear compositions of any rhythmic complexity could be analyzed independently. This was possible because the program user had the option of encoding either rhythm data alone, pitch data alone, or both pitch and rhythm data together.

  8. It should be noted that the program did not attempt to identify patterns which might be suggested to the listener by the confluence of contrapuntal lines. There is simply too little known about this aspect of musical perception to permit such a task to be programmed.

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  1. University of Alaska, Fairbanks

    David A. Stech (Assistant Professor)

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  1. David A. Stech
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Stech, D.A. A computer-assisted approach to micro-analysis of melodic lines. Comput Hum 15, 211–221 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02395372

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