Proc. of the 2nd CompMusic Workshop (Istanbul, Turkey, July 12-13, 2012) AN INTEGRATED FRAMEWORK FOR TRANSCRIPTION, MODAL AND MOTIVIC ANALYSES OF MAQAM IMPROVISATION Olivier Lartillot Mondher Ayari Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, University of Geneva University of Strasbourg & Ircam-CNRS
[email protected] [email protected] ABSTRACT underlying modal structure has rarely been studied in a computational framework; the absence of a clear metrical The CréMusCult project is dedicated to the study of pulsation complicate the rhythmic transcription1. oral/aural creativity in Mediterranean traditional cultures, and especially in Maqam music. Through a dialogue The long-term aim of the project is to develop a computa- between anthropological survey, musical analysis and tional model that is not focused on one single piece, or cognitive modeling, one main objective is to bring to one particular style of modal music, such as this Tunisian light the psychological processes and interactive levels of traditional Istikhbar improvisation, but that is generalized cognitive processing underlying the perception of modal to the study of a large range of music, Arabo-Andalusian structures in Maqam improvisations. maqam but also Turkish makam for instance. One current axis of research in this project is dedicated to 2. BOTTOM-UP ANALYSIS the design of a comprehensive modeling of the analysis of maqam music founded on a complex interaction be- The aim of music transcription is to extract elementary tween progressive bottom-up processes of transcription, musical events (such as notes) from the raw audio signal, modal analysis and motivic analysis and the impact of and to characterize these events with respect to their top-down influence of higher-level information on lower- temporal locations and durations in the signal, their pitch level inferences.