Computers and the 16th-century Chanson a pilot project at the University of Chicago

Conclusions

One cardinal principle guided our evaluation of the data provided for us by the computer: never to be deluded into believing that the computer was in any way capable of analyzing a piece of music. Rather, we used the information made available by the computer as a means of substantiating or explaining the insights into a given composition that we gained by means of a direct confrontation with the music. In this way, the data supplied by the computer proved to be very useful in explaining why a particular portion of a chanson generates a sense of tension, while another section of the same piece creates a feeling of rest. Similarly, the electronically derived information was particularly helpful in setting up stylistic profiles of the various composers whose chansons were included in our sampling. In fact, the computer output was instrumental in helping to settle more than one problem of conflicting attributions, largely on the basis of these stylistic profiles.

Like any other computerized process, our program elicited from the computer no analytical operation that could not have been done without the assistance of the computer. Very little precise measurement has been done in the analysis of the music of the Renaissance, however, and for good reason: the compilation of statistical data of the type we have described takes so much time that it can be considered feasible only with mechanical assistance. The ability we gained to apply to the chanson repertory a somewhat more precise system of analytical measurement was the most encouraging aspect of the pilot project.