Computational Music Science – serie

This is an introduction to basic music technology, including acoustics for sound production and analysis, Fourier, frequency modulation, wavelets, and physical modeling and a classification of musical instruments and sound spaces for tuning and counterpoint.

This is the first volume of the second edition of the now classic book “The Topos of Music”. The author explains the theory's conceptual framework of denotators and forms, the classification of local and global musical objects, the mathematical models of harmony and counterpoint, and topologies for rhythm and motives.

The author explains his theory of musical performance, developed in the language of differential geometry, introducing performance vector fields that generalize tempo and intonation.

This is the third volume of the second edition of the now classic book “The Topos of Music”. The authors present gesture theory, including a gesture philosophy for music, the mathematics of gestures, concept architectures and software for musical gesture theory, the multiverse perspective which reveals the relationship between gesture theory and the string theory in theoretical physics, and applications of gesture theory to a number of musical themes, including counterpoint, modulation theory, free jazz, Hindustani music, and vocal gestures.

This is the fourth volume of the second edition of the now classic book “The Topos of Music”. The author presents appendices with background material on sound and auditory physiology; mathematical basics such as sets, relations, transformations, algebraic geometry, and categories; and tables with chord classes and modulation steps.

This book presents a new semiotic theory based upon category theory and applying to a classification of creativity in music and mathematics.

This book presents a new semiotic theory based upon category theory and applying to a classification of creativity in music and mathematics.

This book is a comprehensive examination of the conception, perception, performance, and composition of time in music across time and culture. These include mathematicians, music theorists, (ethno)musicologists, music psychologists / educators / therapists, music performers, philosophers of music, audiologists, and acousticians.

This book is a comprehensive examination of the conception, perception, performance, and composition of time in music across time and culture. These include mathematicians, music theorists, (ethno)musicologists, music psychologists / educators / therapists, music performers, philosophers of music, audiologists, and acousticians.

In the third and final book of his iconic piano etudes György Ligeti charts a new path relative to the rest of his musical output, representing a significant arrival in a composer’s oeuvre known for its stylistic transformations. This monograph is the first dedicated study of these capstone works, investigating them through a novel lens of statistical-graphical analysis that illuminates their compositional uniqueness as well as broader questions regarding the perception of stability in musical texture.With nearly 200 graphical illustrations and a detailed commentary, this examination reveals the unique manner in which Ligeti treads between tonality and atonality—a key idea in his late style—and the centrality of processes related to broader scale areas (or “macroharmony”) in articulating structures and narratives. The analytical techniques developed here are a powerful tool for investigating macroharmonic stability that can be applied to a wide range of repertoire beyond these works.This book is intended for graduate-level and professional music theorists, musicologists, performers and mathematicians.

In the third and final book of his iconic piano etudes György Ligeti charts a new path relative to the rest of his musical output, representing a significant arrival in a composer’s oeuvre known for its stylistic transformations. This monograph is the first dedicated study of these capstone works, investigating them through a novel lens of statistical-graphical analysis that illuminates their compositional uniqueness as well as broader questions regarding the perception of stability in musical texture.With nearly 200 graphical illustrations and a detailed commentary, this examination reveals the unique manner in which Ligeti treads between tonality and atonality—a key idea in his late style—and the centrality of processes related to broader scale areas (or “macroharmony”) in articulating structures and narratives. The analytical techniques developed here are a powerful tool for investigating macroharmonic stability that can be applied to a wide range of repertoire beyond these works.This book is intended for graduate-level and professional music theorists, musicologists, performers and mathematicians.

This book presents and discusses the fundamental topic of classification of musical objects, such as chords, motifs, and gestures. Their classification deals with the exhibition of isomorphism classes. Our structure types include local and global constructions, the latter being similar to global structures in geometry, such as differentiable manifolds.The discussion extends to the role, which classification plays for the creative construction of musical compositions. Our examples include references to classical compositions, such as Beethoven’s sonatas, and some of the author’s own compositions of classical and jazz styles.We also discuss software that enables the application of classification to musical creativity.The volume is addressed to an audience that would apply classification to programming and creative musical construction.

This book presents and discusses the fundamental topic of classification of musical objects, such as chords, motifs, and gestures. Their classification deals with the exhibition of isomorphism classes. Our structure types include local and global constructions, the latter being similar to global structures in geometry, such as differentiable manifolds.The discussion extends to the role, which classification plays for the creative construction of musical compositions. Our examples include references to classical compositions, such as Beethoven’s sonatas, and some of the author’s own compositions of classical and jazz styles.We also discuss software that enables the application of classification to musical creativity.The volume is addressed to an audience that would apply classification to programming and creative musical construction.

This book offers an in-depth analysis of musical variation through a systematic approach, heavily influenced by the principles of Grundgestalt and developed variations, both created by the Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951). The author introduces a new transformational-derivative model and the theory that supports it, specifically crafted for the examination of tonal music.The idea for this book emerged during a sabbatical at Columbia University, while the content is the product of extensive research conducted at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, resulting in the development of the Model of Derivative Analysis. This model places emphasis on the connections between musical entities rather than viewing them as separate entities. As a case study, the Intermezzo in A Major Op.118/2 by Brahms is selected for analysis.The author's goal is to provide a formal and structured approach while maintaining the text's readability and appeal for both musicians and mathematicians in the field of music theory. The book concludes with the author's recommendations for further research.

This book offers an in-depth analysis of musical variation through a systematic approach, heavily influenced by the principles of Grundgestalt and developed variations, both created by the Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951).

This book proposes contributions to various problems in the field of topological analysis of musical data: the objects studied are scores represented symbolically by MIDI files, and the tools used are the discrete Fourier transform and persistent homology. The manuscript is divided into three parts: the first two are devoted to the study of the aforementioned mathematical objects and the implementation of the model. More precisely, the notion of DFT introduced by Lewin is generalized to the case of dimension two, by making explicit the passage of a musical bar from a piece to a subset of Z/tZ×Z/pZ, which leads naturally to a notion of metric on the set of musical bars by their Fourier coefficients. This construction gives rise to a point cloud, to which the filtered Vietoris-Rips complex is associated, and consequently a family of barcodes given by persistent homology. This approach also makes it possible to generalize classical results such as Lewin's lemma and Babitt's Hexachord theorem. The last part of this book is devoted to musical applications of the model: the first experiment consists in extracting barcodes from artificially constructed scores, such as scales or chords. This study leads naturally to song harmonization process, which reduces a song to its melody and chord grid, thus defining the notions of graph and complexity of a piece. Persistent homology also lends itself to the problem of automatic classification of musical style, which will be treated here under the prism of symbolic descriptors given by statistics calculated directly on barcodes. Finally, the last application proposes a encoding of musical bars based on the Hausdorff distance, which leads to the study of musical textures.The book is addressed to graduate students and researchers in mathematical music theory and music information research, but also at researchers in other fields, such as applied mathematicians and topologists, who want to learn more about mathematical music theory or music information research.

This book proposes contributions to various problems in the field of topological analysis of musical data: the objects studied are scores represented symbolically by MIDI files, and the tools used are the discrete Fourier transform and persistent homology. The manuscript is divided into three parts: the first two are devoted to the study of the aforementioned mathematical objects and the implementation of the model. More precisely, the notion of DFT introduced by Lewin is generalized to the case of dimension two, by making explicit the passage of a musical bar from a piece to a subset of Z/tZ×Z/pZ, which leads naturally to a notion of metric on the set of musical bars by their Fourier coefficients. This construction gives rise to a point cloud, to which the filtered Vietoris-Rips complex is associated, and consequently a family of barcodes given by persistent homology. This approach also makes it possible to generalize classical results such as Lewin's lemma and Babitt's Hexachord theorem. The last part of this book is devoted to musical applications of the model: the first experiment consists in extracting barcodes from artificially constructed scores, such as scales or chords. This study leads naturally to song harmonization process, which reduces a song to its melody and chord grid, thus defining the notions of graph and complexity of a piece. Persistent homology also lends itself to the problem of automatic classification of musical style, which will be treated here under the prism of symbolic descriptors given by statistics calculated directly on barcodes. Finally, the last application proposes a encoding of musical bars based on the Hausdorff distance, which leads to the study of musical textures.The book is addressed to graduate students and researchers in mathematical music theory and music information research, but also at researchers in other fields, such as applied mathematicians and topologists, who want to learn more about mathematical music theory or music information research.

This book offers a groundbreaking introduction to the role of gestures in music, tailored for educators working with young students before university level. Written in clear, intuitive language and free from mathematical or musical prerequisites, this book makes complex ideas accessible.Drawing from Guerino Mazzola’s influential work The Topos of Music, this volume presents gesture theory in a uniquely approachable way, richly illustrated with high-quality figures. It introduces the revolutionary concept of hypergestures — gestures within spaces of gestures — opening new possibilities for understanding and teaching complex musical interactions.

This is the first monograph dedicated to this interdisciplinary research area, combining the views of music, computer science, education, creativity studies, psychology, and engineering. The contributions include introductions to ubiquitous music research, featuring theory, applications, and technological development, and descriptions of permanent community initiatives such as virtual forums, multi-institutional research projects, and collaborative publications. The book will be of value to researchers and educators in all domains engaged with creativity, computing, music, and digital arts.

The mathematical theory of counterpoint was originally aimed at simulating the composition rules described in Johann Joseph Fux’s Gradus ad Parnassum. It soon became apparent that the algebraic apparatus used in this model could also serve to define entirely new systems of rules for composition, generated by new choices of consonances and dissonances, which in turn lead to new restrictions governing the succession of intervals.  This is the first book bringing together recent developments and perspectives on mathematical counterpoint theory in detail. The authors include recent theoretical results on counterpoint worlds, the extension of counterpoint to microtonal pitch systems, the singular homology of counterpoint models, and the software implementation of contrapuntal models. The book is suitable for graduates and researchers. A good command of algebra is a prerequisite for understanding the construction of the model.

The book opens with a short introduction to Indian music, in particular classical Hindustani music, followed by a chapter on the role of statistics in computational musicology. The authors then show how to analyze musical structure using Rubato, the music software package for statistical analysis, in particular addressing modeling, melodic similarity and lengths, and entropy analysis; they then show how to analyze musical performance. Finally, they explain how the concept of seminatural composition can help a music composer to obtain the opening line of a raga-based song using Monte Carlo simulation.  The book will be of interest to musicians and musicologists, particularly those engaged with Indian music.

This is the first monograph dedicated to this interdisciplinary research area, combining the views of music, computer science, education, creativity studies, psychology, and engineering. The contributions include introductions to ubiquitous music research, featuring theory, applications, and technological development, and descriptions of permanent community initiatives such as virtual forums, multi-institutional research projects, and collaborative publications. The book will be of value to researchers and educators in all domains engaged with creativity, computing, music, and digital arts.

The book opens with a short introduction to Indian music, in particular classical Hindustani music, followed by a chapter on the role of statistics in computational musicology. The authors then show how to analyze musical structure using Rubato, the music software package for statistical analysis, in particular addressing modeling, melodic similarity and lengths, and entropy analysis; they then show how to analyze musical performance. Finally, they explain how the concept of seminatural composition can help a music composer to obtain the opening line of a raga-based song using Monte Carlo simulation.  The book will be of interest to musicians and musicologists, particularly those engaged with Indian music.

The mathematical theory of counterpoint was originally aimed at simulating the composition rules described in Johann Joseph Fux’s Gradus ad Parnassum. It soon became apparent that the algebraic apparatus used in this model could also serve to define entirely new systems of rules for composition, generated by new choices of consonances and dissonances, which in turn lead to new restrictions governing the succession of intervals.  This is the first book bringing together recent developments and perspectives on mathematical counterpoint theory in detail. The authors include recent theoretical results on counterpoint worlds, the extension of counterpoint to microtonal pitch systems, the singular homology of counterpoint models, and the software implementation of contrapuntal models. The book is suitable for graduates and researchers. A good command of algebra is a prerequisite for understanding the construction of the model.

This textbook is a first introduction to mathematics for music theorists, covering basic topics such as sets and functions, universal properties, numbers and recursion, graphs, groups, rings, matrices and modules, continuity, calculus, and gestures.

This book explains the state of the art in the use of the discrete Fourier transform (DFT) of musical structures such as rhythms or scales. In particular the author explains the DFT of pitch-class distributions, homometry and the phase retrieval problem, nil Fourier coefficients and tilings, saliency, extrapolation to the continuous Fourier transform and continuous spaces, and the meaning of the phases of Fourier coefficients. This is the first textbook dedicated to this subject, and with supporting examples and exercises this is suitable for researchers and advanced undergraduate and graduate students of music, computer science and engineering. The author has made online supplementary material available, and the book is also suitable for practitioners who want to learn about techniques for understanding musical notions and who want to gain musical insights into mathematical problems.

This book explains music’s comprehensive ontology, its way of existence and processing, as specified in its compact characterization: music embodies meaningful communication and mediates physically between its emotional and mental layers.

This book presents a deep spectrum of musical, mathematical, physical, and philosophical perspectives that have emerged in this field at the intersection of music and mathematics.

This is the first volume of the second edition of the now classic book “The Topos of Music”. The author explains the theory's conceptual framework of denotators and forms, the classification of local and global musical objects, the mathematical models of harmony and counterpoint, and topologies for rhythm and motives.