Anno 2004/2

Questo fascicolo della rivista è dedicato a un tema la cui presenza sta diventando negli ultimi anni particolarmente vivace negli studi analitici e teorici. Lo scambio fertile e fecondo fra discipline diverse è sempre stato presente nel GATM, anzi si può dire che faccia parte del suo stesso atto di nascita: basta ricordare come inizialmente i soci che componevano la nostra associazione fossero cinque società musicologiche assai diverse per interessi e tradizioni di studio (musicologia, etnomusicologia, educazione musicale, popular music, informatica musicale) e come il convegno d’analisi che si tenne a Trento nel 1992 rispecchiasse fedelmente questo
incrocio di discipline ...

This paper presents an empirical investigation of the ways listeners associate
changes in musical parameters with physical space and bodily motion. In the ex-
periments reported, participants were asked to associate melodic stimuli with im-
agined motions of a human character and to specify the type, direction, and pace
change of these motions, as well as the forces affecting them. Musical parameters
manipulated included dynamics, pitch direction, pitch intervals, attack rate, and
articulation. Results indicate that most musical parameters significantly affect sev-
eral dimensions of motion imagery. For instance, pitch contour affected imagined
motion along all three spatial axes (not only verticality), as well as the velocity and
“energy.” Surprisingly, musical-spatial analogies are often asymmetrical, as a musi-
cal change in one direction evokes a significantly stronger spatial analogy than its
opposite. Such asymmetries include even the entrenched association of pitch
change and spatial verticality, which applies mosdy to pitch descents, but only
weakly to ascents. In general, musical abatements are strongly associated with spa-
tial descents, while musical intensifications are generally associated with increasing
speed, rather than ascent. The implications of these results for notions of perceived
musical space and for accounts of expressive musical gesture are discussed.

In a study of the improvisations of saxophonist Charlie Parker, Owens (1974)
found repeated patterns of notes, or formulas. This paper presents results of a com-
puterized adaptation of Owens’s method, which we used to begin to examine the
role of formulas in jazz so/os. We used a computer program to search for formulas in
6 solos by Parker, 4 by Lester Young, and 1 by Jaco Pastorius. In Parker’s solos, almost
3400 formulas of various lengths were found. Approximately 90% of the 400 notes
in Parker’s solos, on average, were included within the formulas. Formulas were also
frequent in the solos of Young and Pastorius. We also found systematic changes over
time in repertoires of formulas. Our data indicate that these three players were for-
mulaic improvisers. The possible role of formulas in improvisation is discussed.

In this article a study is described in which the possibilities of Machine Learn-
ing for musical style recognition are explored. These methods can be used to dis-
solve authorship problems or to get more insight in particular musical styles. A da-
taset with compositions of Bach, Haendel, Telemann, Mozart and Haydn is inves-
tigated. A number of features (style markers) is measured in the scores. It is shown
that with these features it is very well possible to recognize the styles of the five
composers automatically using various Machine Learning algorithms.

In this article we develop a musical parser which is based on Lerdahl and Jackendoff’s Generative Theory of Tonal Music (1983). Their preference rules are adapted to incorporate recent insights from linguistic theory, In particular from Optimality Theory. Crucially, Optimality Theory provides us with a conflict resolution mechanism which allows us to determine unambiguously which rule is to
be obeyed in case of a conflict between rules. The musical parser takes the form of a computational model which determines an optimal grouping structure for any given sequence of pitch events. Its viability is tested empirically by comparing its results with the results obtained from ten human subjects.

Metric ambiguity is an important feature of 18th century music. Of particular interest is the occurrence of metrical ambiguity resulting from conflicting groupings occurring within a monophonic texture. This paper explores the perceptual and structural implications of these monophonic metrical ambiguities. Phenomenal accents suggesting nonconcurrent groupings can generate competing metric interpretations of a musical surface. Sometimes these conflicts continue for a relatively prolonged period. 

We describe a computer-assisted procedure for composing harmonic progressions that takes into account the perceptual processes underlying roughness (sensory dissonance) and the pitch of complex tones. First, the user specifies the outer voices and specific model parameters, including preferred values of the perceived roughness of each sonority, the pitch commonality of successive sonorities, and the pitch commonality of each sonority with a reference sonority. The model then generates different possible chords and progressions within these constraints.
 

Il presente contributo si basa sul resoconto di un’esperienza didattica svolta dal primo autore, compositore di formazione, nell’anno scolastico 1997-98. Si tratta di un progetto fondato sull’ascolto di musica contemporanea e sulla composizione di brevi frammenti musicali da parte di alunni di una scuola media (Giacomo Leopardi” di Trofarello, Torino). Dalla realizzazione dell'esperienza sono scaturiti problemi ed interrogativi, che abbiamo approfondito, in occasione del ripensamento che qui presentiamo, sulla scorta di letture tratte dall'ambito della pedagogia musicale degli ultimi anni.

La produzione di Arnold Schoenberg riveste un ruolo affatto particolare nell’ambito della teoria musicale, e non solo di quella del Novecento. Schoenberg è stato l’unico grande compositore ad avere una produzione teorica di livello comparabile con la propria produzione musicale — l’unico se si esclude Wagner, i cui scritti riguardano più l’aspetto estetico e filosofico che quello tecnico-compositivo. L’'immensa fama dell’autore, e la leggenda che egli fosse depositario delle ricette segrete per comporre musica ‘moderna’, hanno conferito alle sue opere teoriche, specie tra gli aspiranti compositori, un’aura di prestigio quasi sacrale.