Towards Automatic Transcription of Sixteenth-Century Lute Intabulations: Designing an Algorithm for Automatic Voice Extraction Reinier de Valk Student number 0444081 A thesis submitted for the degree of Master of Arts Written under the supervision of Dr. Frans Wiering Second reader Dr. Theodor Dumitrescu University of Utrecht Faculty of Humanities Department of Musicology 31 August 2008 Woodcut from Melchior Newsidler, Teütsch Lautenbuch (Strasbourg, 1574) TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION Problems, Research Question, and Methodology 1.1 Introduction: The ‘limitations’ of tablature ....................................................................................1 1.2 Restrictions imposed and research question ....................................................................................3 1.3 Why automatic transcription? .......................................................................................................5 1.4 Research method and chapter division ............................................................................................7 1.5 The sixteenth-century lute and lute tablature systems in a nutshell ..................................................9 1.5.1 German tablature ......................................................................................................10 1.5.2 French, Italian, and Spanish tablature .......................................................................11 CHAPTER II: THE TRAINING CORPUS An Investigation into the Polyphonic Fabric of Intabulations 2.1 The training corpus .....................................................................................................................13 2.2 Method ......................................................................................................................................15 2.3 Step 1: Visualization of the tablature .........................................................................................18 2.4 Step 2: Matching of onsets ..........................................................................................................19 2.5 Step 3: Distribution of deviations (non-matching onsets) ..............................................................23 2.6 Preservation of the original polyphony ..........................................................................................25 2.7 Step 4: Addition of duration ......................................................................................................27 2.8 Voice crossing ............................................................................................................................29 2.9 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................33 CHAPTER III: PREFERENCE RULES FOR VOICE BEHAVIOUR; VOICE EXTRACTION PROBLEMS An Analysis of the Piano-Roll Graphs 3.1 Voice behaviour .........................................................................................................................35 3.1.1 Special cases of voice crossing ......................................................................................36 3.1.2 Horizontal motion .....................................................................................................43 3.1.3 Voice range ...............................................................................................................49 3.1.4 Textural density ........................................................................................................54 i ii TABLE OF CONTENTS 3.2 Preference rules for voice behaviour ..............................................................................................59 3.3 Voice extraction problems ...........................................................................................................61 CHAPTER IV: THE ANALYTICAL PHASE Past Attempts at Automatic Transcription, Music Perception and Cognition Principles, and General Voice Extraction Algorithms 4.1 The ERATTO project: Automatic transcription of German lute tablature .................................69 4.1.1 The first phase: 1973-79 ...........................................................................................70 4.1.2 The second phase: 1986-early 1990s ..........................................................................72 (i) The imitation detection algorithm ......................................................................74 (ii) The continuity algorithm ..................................................................................76 (iii) Duration calculation .......................................................................................83 4.2 Music perception and cognition principles .....................................................................................85 4.2.1 Summary ...................................................................................................................91 4.3 General voice extraction algorithms .............................................................................................93 4.3.1 Skyline ......................................................................................................................95 4.3.2 Nearest Neighbor ......................................................................................................95 4.3.3 Voice Separation Algorithm (VoSA) .......................................................................96 4.3.4 Streamer ....................................................................................................................97 4.3.5 Streaming algorithm (Cambouropoulos) ......................................................................98 4.3.6 Other algorithms ........................................................................................................99 4.4 Test of the algorithms ...............................................................................................................101 4.4.1 Skyline ...................................................................................................................101 4.4.2 Nearest Neighbor ....................................................................................................104 4.4.3 VoSA ....................................................................................................................106 4.4.4 Streamer ..................................................................................................................108 4.4.5 Streaming algorithm (Cambouropoulos) ....................................................................108 4.5 Evaluation ...............................................................................................................................111 CHAPTER V: THE CONCEPTUAL DESIGN PHASE A Conceptual Design of an Algorithm for Automatic Transcription of Lute Intabulations 5.1 Step 1: Calculation of the number of voices ................................................................................117 5.2 Step 2: Detection and freezing of imitations ...............................................................................117 5.3 Step 3: First (provisional) attempt at onset distribution .............................................................118 TABLE OF CONTENTS iii 5.4 Step 4: Textural smoothing ......................................................................................................121 5.5 Step 5: Connecting of the remaining onsets ................................................................................124 5.6 Conclusion ...............................................................................................................................127 CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION Conclusions and Future Work 6.1 Conclusions ..............................................................................................................................129 6.2 Future work ............................................................................................................................131 REFERENCES ....................................................................................................................................133 APPENDIX: THE TRAINING CORPUS The Original Tablatures and Their Visualizations as Piano-Roll Graphs (1) Francesco Spinacino, Adiu mes amours ...............................................................................138 (2) Hans Judenkünig, Elslein liebes Elslein ................................................................................148 (3) Pierre Attaingnant, Tant que vivray ......................................................................................152 (4) Hans Newsidler, Disant adiu madame ..................................................................................156 (5) Luys de Narváez, Mille regres ..............................................................................................162 (6) Antonio Rotta, Bramo morir per non patir piu morte .............................................................169 (7) Diego Pisador, Madrigal vostra fui a quatro bozes .................................................................179 (8) Guillaume Morlaye, Las on peut juger ..................................................................................185 (9) Sebastian Ochsenkun, Herr Gott laβ dich erbarmen ............................................................193 (10) Pierre Phalèse, Susanne ung jour .........................................................................................197