Analisi della musica assistita da computer: strumenti operativi in OpenMusic

The article is aimed at computer-assisted music analysis. Therefore, some automatic analysis algorithms are presented, created in the OpenMusic environment, for carrying out analytical tasks from some of the widespread and historically defined methodologies. Each case is accompanied by a brief practical example. After some preliminary notions and the exposition of the methodological bases of the research, the antecedents in the field of assisted music analysis are out- lined, some software are briefly illustrated, to arrive at the description of the software used, namely OpenMusic.

We then move on to the primary core of the research, describing some patches for automatic analysis, related to:

• –  statisticalanalysis–pitches,durations,intervals

• –  dodecaphonic analysis – twelve-tone matrices and study of invariants

• –  Pitch-Class Set analysis – identification of the main characteristics of the

  pc sets, also through automatic and immediate detection by playing on a MIDI keyboard connected to the computer; identification of the K and Kh relations, as well as the normal rhythmic order and the primary rhythmic form

• –  analysis of Messiaen’s modes – musical performance of groups of notes on a MIDI keyboard, identifying in real time for each of them the belonging to possible modes and transpositions

• –  algorithmic realization of a methodology deduced from a Straus’s essay

The conclusions follow, focused on the advantages of using these tools, on the dangers of an unconscious use of technology, on the possibilities that open up in different fields, from analysis to teaching.