Why is Greek music interesting: Towards an ethics of MIR

Why is Greek music interesting: Towards an ethicsof MIR

André Holzapfel and George Tzanetakis

New York University Abu [email protected]

Victoria University, [email protected]

27/10/2014 Taipei

Holzapfel and Tzanetakis (NYUAD,UVIC) Greek music 10/2014 1 / 106

Outline1 Introduction2 A small journey through Greek music

An (incomplete) musical map of GreeceUrban-, Art-, and Orthodox Music

3 Research tasksRembetika: Chord estimationEpirus: Learn harmonic styleParataxis: morphology of melodiesRembetiko/Cretan music: Beat trackingCretan dance: Music SimilarityMood detectionMultimodal analysisOrthodox chant: OMR, score following, performance analysis

4 Universal approachesMusic universalsMusic DistributionEthics in MIR

5 Appendix: music collectionsReferences








Greece, the “Wikipedia” view

Population: about 11 million.Capital: Athens (almost 4 million).Many cultures had their influence by governing (parts of) today’sGreek territory.Modern Greek state founded in 1830s.In the 1920s the dream of expansion to Asia Minor ended in acatastrophe, and population exchange of millions of peoplebetween Greece and the new-born Turkish state.227 inhabited islands, 80% of the country is mountain area.


Shared traits of Greek folk music

Modal melodic systems.Tendency towards vocal monophony and instrumentalheterophonyDivision into three major classes:

1 Mainland musics: mainly wind instruments, assymetric rhythms2 Island musics: more chordophonic, often influences of Venetian,

duple meters dominate.3 Asia Minor

Dance is until today very important in all folk musics of Greece.














Ionian islands

Stronglyinfluenced byVenetians, ine.g. Kantades.The onlyrepertoire withharmony in thesense ofEurogeneticmusic isencounteredhere.


Ionian islands

Example1 of a kantada in Zakynthos.

1©Valerios Kalokairinos, photo cerigo, video: YoutubeHolzapfel and Tzanetakis (NYUAD,UVIC) Greek music 10/2014 9 / 106

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hO-yhevF2Gk

Epirus

Most knownrepertoires:

1 Clarinetmusic

2 Polyphonicvocal music

Most populardances: sirtos(2/4), tsamikos(3/4)...


Clarinet in Epirus

Clarinet with Albert system of keying, came to Greece in early1800.Accompanied by violin, laouto, tambourine (defi) and otherinstruments.Klarino provides the melody to the dance songs.In non-dance songs and improvisations klarino plays nonmetrical,weeping melodies.


Clarinet in Epirus

Example2: Kostas Chalkias playing in the village Stratsiani (?).

2video: YoutubeHolzapfel and Tzanetakis (NYUAD,UVIC) Greek music 10/2014 12 / 106

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaSCS-R1C6Y

Polyphonic singing in Epirus

Precisely: diaphonic singing.Pentatonic structure and involves at least three vocal parts:

1 Main melodic line.2 Fixed drone on the tonic (ison).3 Klostis (embroiderer) who might lead the melody and also

embroiders it.

Shared tradition with Albania. Varies in stylistic elements,depending on the precise origin of the song.


Polyphonic singing in Epirus

Example3 of polyphonic singing in the Music Village 2007.

3source: YoutubeHolzapfel and Tzanetakis (NYUAD,UVIC) Greek music 10/2014 14 / 106

www.music-village.gr

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCVcFVdCbaM

Epirus: Some notes on the dances

According to Garland: mainly two dances, in 2/4 and 3/4.However, dances performed at least in folkloristic context aremanifold.Website about Greek dances lists more than 30 dances in Epirus.A shared property of the dances seems to be emphasis on“heavy” and constrained movements.


http://paroutsas.jmc.gr/dances/epiros/index.htm

Example of Epeirus dance

Example from Petroupolis (2011)4: transition between two dances fromEpirus.

4©Association Epirotes Petropolis, source: YoutubeHolzapfel and Tzanetakis (NYUAD,UVIC) Greek music 10/2014 16 / 106

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-Ap6G9sR9M

Macedonia

Large area, withshared musiccultures andinfluences fromAlbania,FYROM,Bulgaria, andTurkey.Meters are hardto comprehendwhen notfamiliar with thedance.


Macedonian brass bands

Example5: Chalkina Kozanis playing the Macedonian dance tuneRaikos.

5excerpt from concert in Megaro Mousikis Athens, source: YoutubeHolzapfel and Tzanetakis (NYUAD,UVIC) Greek music 10/2014 18 / 106

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ut9G1mTvUVw

Central+Eastern Macedonia

Groups of two zournades and one daouli popular in Eastern andCentral Macedonia. Example6: Dimitris Lappas, Vangelis Tsiakalasand son, from Sochos village.

6©Aggelos Tsiakalas, source: YoutubeHolzapfel and Tzanetakis (NYUAD,UVIC) Greek music 10/2014 19 / 106

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oh9lEw17es

Pontic immigration to Macedonia

Greeks from black sea where forced to migrate to Greece in 1920’s.Main instrument is the kemence, a bowed fiddle. Dances are very fastand have a unique body language. Example7: Dance Tik Tromachtonperformance.

7©National College of Metsovo, source: YoutubeHolzapfel and Tzanetakis (NYUAD,UVIC) Greek music 10/2014 20 / 106

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4qgSFs6rSk

Peleponnese/Roumeli

Maininstrumentsclarinet, violinand laouto.Apparentlydifferent melodicmodescompared toMacedonia.


Kalamatianos dance (A Greek Melange)

Kalamatianos is on of the most popular dances all over Greece, but itsorigin is Peleponnese. Example8: Singer Antonis Diamantidis fromIstanbul singing “Mou paringeile to aidoni”.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RW6ywtJ4Z_Y

Eastern Macedonia / Thrace

Depending onthe area,influences fromTurkey andBulgaria.In NorthernThrace a richbagpipe traditionexists.


Zonaradikos dance tune (Evros, Thrace)

Example9: Theodosis Logaroudis plays the Gaida bagpipe.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAccd7p8qKg

Cyclades islands

Ensemble ofviolin and luteplays styles oflove anddrinking songsthat becameknown asnisiotikathroughoutGreece.Dances in thisstyle are alwaysin a 2/4 meter.


Example: Naxos

Example10: Famous Nisiotiko (Dari-Dari) song played by Kostas andVasiliki Kikili, accompanied by Giorgos Papaioannou.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d13n8KbIqvs

Crete

Improvised poetry(mantinades)wide-spread.Large diversity ofdances in 2/4 meter.Archaic form of groupsinging (rizitika) in theWest.Instruments: Lyra(bowed fiddle), CretanLute, Violin, Mandoline,Bagpipes...


Example: Mantinades

Example11: Kantada in the village of Anogia with Giorgos Vrentzosand friends.

11source: own fieldwork 2014Holzapfel and Tzanetakis (NYUAD,UVIC) Greek music 10/2014 28 / 106

Example: Rizitiko

Example12: Rizitiko “Pervoli” sung by Giorgos Xilouris.

12source: own fieldwork 2011Holzapfel and Tzanetakis (NYUAD,UVIC) Greek music 10/2014 29 / 106







Rural musics: Rembetiko

Clear relations in structures and themes to rural folktraditions (Beaton, 1980).First appeared in music cafes in Aegean port cities in thebeginning of 1900s.First influence: After the exchange of populations (1920s)ensembles coming from Asia Minor.Instruments: saz, violin, oud, santour.

Rita Ampatzi: ”To Pasoumi“


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fof5zH4LjTE

Rural musics: Rembetiko

Second influence: Piraeus style, dominated by guitar andbouzouki.Often related to circles of the underground and prisons.In the forties, the Greek ”roads“ (modes) where more and morereplaced by Western scales.After the 1980s a revival with new compositions (Xarhakos).

Giorgos Dalaras singing”Stou Thoma“ by Xarchakosin the Closing Celebrationof the Olympics 2004.Video (after 16m45s)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7du2aicYks

Art music: Some examples

Greek national music school founded by Manolis Kalomoiris.Relating national elements with classical European music tradition.Example: Greek dances by Emilios Riadis listen

Greek Avant-gardeExample: Yannis ChristouAfter period of atonal composition, he developed concepts that putmusic in a wider philosophical, psychological and metaphysicalcontext.Example composition: Mysterion, scenic Oratorio on ancientEgyptian sacred texts, for narrator, three mixed choirs, orchestra,tape and actors (1965/1966) listen

The vast cosmos of Greek song, with the most popular composersbeing Mikis Theodorakis and Manos Hatzidakis


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OcRsA7fjYw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrKXn8g4Heo

Byzantine/Orthodox Chant

First neumatic notations round 950, but learning required oraladvising (Dragoumis, 1966).Byzantine chanting tradition was widely preserved until our days inthe Greek orthodox church.Mostly one chanter supported by a drone singer (ison), in therecent years increasingly usage of chorus, but no instruments.

Allilouarion by PsaltisTheodoros Vasiliou, source:Collection at ApostolikiDiakonia.


http://www.apostoliki-diakonia.gr/byzantine_music/index_gr.asp














Rembetika: Between Orient and Occident

Pennanen (1997):“Musical analysis of rebetika calls for elements from the theories ofOttoman and Western music, and ultimately a special rebetika theorythat remains to be constructed.”

Melody and chords in RembetikoMelody governed by modes calls “dromoi”(roads).These modes are often related to Turkish Makam.Also Ragas from Indian film music were used in the 60s in Laika,the music that emerged from Rembetiko.Modes have tonal centers, on which chords are positioned.Triads do not necessarily use the scale tones of the mode.


Rembetiko example

Song “Mes stin polli skotoura mou” in mode Karcigar.Unusual changes between major/minor on the third degree.Chord sequences of a minor on third degree to minor first degree(Fm to Dm).

Music: Vasilis Tsitsanis.Recorded in 1938 by StratosPayioumtzis. Transcriptionfrom Pennanen (1997).


Rembetiko example 2

“To Vouno”, in a mode that is referred to as Ussak in Greek music.Naming of related makam in Turkish music: Kürdi (Ussak refers toa different makam).Second degree alterates between sharp and flat depending on themelodic direction.Again: harmonization emphasizes strong notes of the mode.

Music/Lyrics: Lukas Daralasand Vangelis Prekas.Recorded in 1954 by KaitiGrey and DimitrisRoumelioti. Transcriptionfrom Pennanen (1997)


Suggestions

Rembetiko an interesting style to extend existing chord estimationalgorithms.Challenges:

1 Modal behaviour of the melodies and the related unusual chordprogressions.

2 Potential micro-tonal intervals in the singing voice or some of theaccompanying instruments.

3 Triads might use notes not present in scale.4 Varying sound quality of the examples.5 Contained instrumental timbres.








Harmonies in polyphonic singing

Kaliakatsos-Papakostas, Katsiavalos, Tsougras, andCambouropoulos (2014)

Notations that are available for 22 songs from the study by (Lolis,2006).General Chord Type representation (Cambouropoulos,Kaliakatsos-Papakostas, & Tsougras, 2014): definition ofconsonant/dissonant intervals influences analysis into chords.including major second and minor seventh as consonances:



Their findingsLearn statistics of the occuring chords.Many chords contain interval of a major second.Typical cadences include “dissonant” endings in weak beat.

They apply the learnt harmonic style to melodies from differentrepertoires.Tsougras (2014) applied the theories of Lerdahl and Jackendoff

(1983) to the Epeirus repertoire.



An example from (Lolis, 2006)








Parataxis: Organizing principle of instrumental music

Parataxis (Sarris, Kolydas, & Tzevelekos, 2010)Parataxis (linguistics): way of forming phrases using shortsentences, without the use of coordinating or subordinatingconjunc- tions.Parataxis (music): a way of forming a music performance usingmelodic units/sections, without any hierarchical organization or(systematic) repetition of those units.Each unit is performed in form of a variation of the underlying tuneskopos.


Parataxis: An example

Example as includedin (Sarris, 2007).Order of units(4-bar-length):A-A-B-B-G-D-D-A-A-B-B-G-G-A-A-B-B-G-G.


Parataxis: Analysis in Ethnomusicology

Sarris et al. (2010)Developed a software interface for manual annotation.Goal: Relating annotations by musicologists with annotations bymusicians.

Theodosopoulou (2004)Manual transcription of a collection of repertoires.Registering all melodic units into a catalogue.


Parataxis: MIR driven approach

Holzapfel and Stylianou (2010)Goal: Given query in form of audio, detection of similar melodicunits in other recordings.Feature: Beat synchronous melody histogram

1 Perform a F0 estimation of the melody played by the leadinstrument.

2 Sumarize all F0 values within an eighth-note duration to ahistogram.

compute 2-dim correlation between query and target piece.The maxima of these correlations are often related toappearances of the query.



Holzapfel and Stylianou (2010)

Figure : Plot of cross-correlations between query and piece. Trueappearances of the query are in dashed boxes.

Query , Target (excerpt) , examples from http://crinnos.ims.forth.gr/



Holzapfel (2014)Goal: Analyze how Cretan dance tunes differ regarding theirmelodic units, and which units characterize a dance.Input feature: again fundamental frequency (found at leastequivalent to chroma).Queries: all eight-bar sequences of F0 values of query song,Target: all F0 values of target song.Using a Hough transform on similarity matrices between queryand target (Sentürk, Holzapfel, & Serra, 2014).Results:

1 Cretan leaping dances can most reliably be recognized usingmelodic content.

2 Automatically detected two bar phrases are indeed verycharacteristic examples for a specific dance.


Parataxis: Far from a deep understanding

Results until now:Possible to identify important building blocks from audiorecordings.Systematic research of how musicians create variations and gofrom one unit to the next is yet to be done (i.e. complete structuralanalysis).For an analysis that can be understood by researchers inmusicology, transcription is needed.


Parataxis: Towards transcription

Skopós vs. variationAccording to oral music theory (at least of some musicians inGreece), there are different significant layers in parataxis music:

1 The drone: the “tonic” of the underlying melodic mode2 Chordal elaboration: chords support strong notes in melody (see

Rembetiko).3 Skopos: basic melody, to be ornamented and rhythmically

elaborated.4 Variation: musician chooses to play skopós in a certain style.

That leaves us with a structure that resembles what Lerdahl andJackendoff (1983) capture with their generative theory (recognizedby Tsougras (2014) for Epirus music).


Parataxis, an example: Sirtos Rodinou

Rehearsal at workshop in Meronas2014, own recording.

Dimitris Sideris at workshop inMeronas 2014, own recording.








9/8 in Rembetika/LaikaMost popular rhythm in 9/8 is the Zeimbekiko, an example bysinger Sotiria Bellou: listenHowever, even when restricting to 9/8, there are manifold rhythmsonly on Rembetiko.Examples videos of guitar rhythms: Dimitris Mistakidis.

(a) NewZeimbekiko

(b) OldZeimbekiko

(c) Kamilieriko (d) Aptaliko

(e) Karsilamas (f) Karsilamas 2


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxOlLoxRijM

http://www.youtube.com/user/dmystak/videos

Large variety in meter

Some examplesin 3: Tsamikos (or Kleftikos), from Epirus to Peloponnese.in 4: Ballos, Hasapikos,...in 5: Tsakonikos, from Peloponnesein 7: Kalamatianos, Gerakina (from Thessaly), Samiotissain 9: Zeimbekiko, Karsilamasin 11: Endeka Kozanisin 12: Beratis (from Macedonia)


Beat tracking in 2/4

Cretan SoustaSousta dance from Crete: trapped on the off-beatReason: Emphasis in rhythmic pattern, strongly related to dance!

Sousta example: , compared with Anogianos dance (bothplayed by Alexandros Papadakis)

1/8 2/8 3/8 4/80

0.02

0.04

0.06

0.08

0.1

0.12

0.14

0.16

En

erg

y C

ha

ng

e

Bar Position


Beat tracking in 2/4

Cretan SirtosSirtos dance from Crete: play with syncopation.Accompaniment 1/16-strokes almost without emphasis, melodyoften syncopated.

A sirtos phrase (Dimitris Sideris):

Giorgos Manolakis,Seira Sirton, MusicStage Idiomelo,source youtube


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyRqIqfgUKE







Music Similarity: Cretan dance

Throughout the last decades an increasing trend towardsre-discovering old local dances and tunes gained momentum inthe island of Crete.About 20 Cretan dances are taught in various dancing schools.Example: Maleviziotis, considered Pancretan, very popular:

A. Papadakis inMochos, Crete, ownrecording, 2011.


Music Similarity: Cretan dance

Example: Sousta, also Pancretan, but less frequent:

A. Papadakis inMochos, Crete, ownrecording, 2011.


(Cretan) Music similarity: naive approach

Holzapfel and Stylianou (2011), Holzapfel and Stylianou (2009)These are different dances,...

it smells like rhythmic similarity!Rhythm of a piece of music is described by the scale transformmagnitude, computed by transforming the sample autocorrelationof its onset strength signal to the scale domain.No impact of tempo differences between two pieces ⇒comparison with e.g. cosine distance.Alternatively: Antonopoulos et al. (2007) proposed rhythmicsimilarity tool for Greek music.

AC

1. 2.

TRANSF.

SCALE3.

OSS

o(t) S(c)r(t)sample

Classification accuracy improved! Mission accomplished?



Holzapfel and Stylianou (2011), Holzapfel and Stylianou (2009)These are different dances,...it smells like rhythmic similarity!Rhythm of a piece of music is described by the scale transformmagnitude, computed by transforming the sample autocorrelationof its onset strength signal to the scale domain.No impact of tempo differences between two pieces ⇒comparison with e.g. cosine distance.Alternatively: Antonopoulos et al. (2007) proposed rhythmicsimilarity tool for Greek music.

AC

1. 2.

TRANSF.

SCALE3.

OSS

o(t) S(c)r(t)sample

Classification accuracy improved! Mission accomplished?



Confusion matrixOverall performance “good”: about 76% classificatio accuracy.However, some dances seem to cause problems.

These dances belong to the group of leaping dances.


(Cretan) Music similarity: Melodic aspect

Method motivated by (Sentürk et al., 2014)Estimate fundamental frequency of melodyObtain partial matches to eight-bar queries using Hough transformon similarity matrix.Results: given a query phrase from a recording, in which otherrecordings does the phrase occur again?We know the related dance for each recording: we createhistograms that describe in which dance we find the phrase again.We concentrate on phrases that do not occur in many differentdances.Small dataset of 22 recordings from 5 dances.



Method motivated by (Sentürk et al., 2014)Reminder: all the dances follow Parataxis morphology.Estimate fundamental frequency of melodyObtain partial matches to eight-bar queries using Hough transformon similarity matrix.Results: given a query phrase from a recording, in which otherrecordings does the phrase occur again?We know the related dance for each recording: we createhistograms that describe in which dance we find the phrase again.We concentrate on phrases that do not occur in many differentdances.



Distribution of the detected melodic patterns for the five dances.

Ano. Eth. Mal. Sou. Sit.0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

Pro

ba

bili

ty

(g) AnogianosAno. Eth. Mal. Sou. Sit.

0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

Pro

ba

bili

ty(h) Ethianos


0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

Pro

ba

bili

ty

(i) Sousta


0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

Pro

babili

ty

(j) MaleviziotisAno. Eth. Mal. Sou. Sit.

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

Pro

babili

ty

(k) Sitiakos



DiscussionAnogianos and Ethianos melodies are built from patterns found inthat particular dance only.Both are dances from relatively isolated mountain areas......and both were ”reanimated“ in a wider context recently.Most popular dance is characterized by highest diversity(Maleviziotis).

Characteristic phrases (examples)We can identify phrases that occur for a specific dance only:

Anogianos , Ethianos , Sousta , Maleviziotis (used inintroduction!) , Sitiakos .



ConclusionsCretan leaping dances are most reliably recognized using theirmelodic content.A collection/dictionary of melodic and rhythmic patterns can beobtained automatically.Tempo plays an important role in the differentiation betweendances.Rhythmic patterns might contribute, but are characterized by alarge degree of freedom.Discourse on style between musicians reflected in the data (e.g.tempo choices).








Some examples: Christmas in Germany

Signal basedrecommendation...

A song chosen by mymother to fit the beautiful

christmas mood!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ey8Egd22LI

Some examples: Christmas in Germany

The lyricsTitle: The pain of thejunkieSince those days whenI started to smokecocaine/heroine,the world around medenies me, I do notknow what to do!


Some examples: Another ”major”

Sinnefiasmeni Kyriaki byVasilis Tsitsanis,listen on youtube

The storyOne evening during the Germanoccupation the composer, VasilisTsitsanis, played in a small tavern.German soldiers that night blocked allstreets, and nobody in the tavern knewhow to come home alive, so they toldTsitsanis to play all night. In the morningonly they were able to leave, and whilegoing home Tsitsanis saw the snowsoaked in blood on the streets and hefound a fellow citizen dead on the ground.Arriving home he wrote the song, with thefirst title “Wounded Sunday”.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuTWdVn0kn8

Some examples: Another ”major”

Sinnefiasmeni Kyriaki byVasilis Tsitsanis,listen on youtube

The storyOne evening during the Germanoccupation the composer, VasilisTsitsanis, played in a small tavern.German soldiers that night blocked allstreets, and nobody in the tavern knewhow to come home alive, so they toldTsitsanis to play all night. In the morningonly they were able to leave, and whilegoing home Tsitsanis saw the snowsoaked in blood on the streets and hefound a fellow citizen dead on the ground.Arriving home he wrote the song, with thefirst title “Wounded Sunday”.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuTWdVn0kn8

Mood, meaning, (con)text

DiscussionHow Greek listeners respond compared to other listeners torepertoire familiar to them was documented by Kosta, Song,Fazekas, and Sandler (2013).The mood caused by a piece of music is related to the meaningthat the listener assigns while listening.This meaning is not purely an outcome of sound, but also of

1 Text/Lyrics.2 Cultural context.3 Personal diposition of listner.

Misconceptions by using sound only can have ugly consequences.Greek music might be a good starting point, because textual andmelodic “mood” seem to conflict in many cases.








Dance, song, music

Singing, dancing, and playing instruments were inseparable partsof the ancient Athenian tragedy.In many music traditions all over Greece, the need to dance is thedriving force for music.Human motion is initially a necessary condition for musical sound(until the introduction of synthesized sound and sequencers).In general, there is very little work on the relations between musicperformance and dance.








Orthodox chant

MIR researchMavromatis (2009) applies Hidden Markov Models in order toanalyze the structure of melodic formulae.

Central question: how are melodic formulae and the text (i.e. lyrics)related?Used material: notations from 246 variants of a candencial formulaGoal: HMM description for melodic formulae that is optimal in termsof complexity.

Panteli and Purwins (2013): how do performance and theoryrelate?

Pitch class profiles from chant recordings compared to widelyapplied theory of Orthodox chant.Theory is widely followed, theoretically large intervals arecommonly “flattened” in musical practice.Corpus: 94 recordings by four singers, from commercially availableCD’s.


Orthodox chant

MIR research (OMR)Gezerlis and Theodoridis (2000) task of identifying 71 distinctcharacter classes.

Achieved high accuracies using wavelet based features and simplenearest neighbor classification.

(Dalitz, Michalakis, & Pranzas, 2008): OMR-system that iscapable to perform a page segmentation and lyrics removal.

Dataset of printed material, manual notations are not applied.

Both approaches concentrate on the standardized notation(established about 200 years ago).


Orthodox chant

Available collectionsDelviniotis and Kouroupetroglou (2011) recorded 20 psaltes from

all over Greece under identical recording conditions.Apart from sound recordings with microphones, also EGG available.Transcriptions and expected pitch information.Cover the largest possible range of combinations of musical formand modes.

Greek church provides digital sources with the collection ofKonstantinos Priggos.

600 recordings of Orthodox chant by several psaltesNotations for the sound examples.




Orthodox chant

Available collectionsDigitized collection of Konstantinos A. Psachos, with manyhand-written notations from the last centuries.


http://pergamos.lib.uoa.gr/dl/object/col:psachos

Orthodox chant

Some suggestionsOMR, especially regarding manuscripts is challenging.Score following algorithms could be tested for robustness onorthodox chant.Data is available that allows for detailed studies of human vocalperformance.Rachel Wells Hall studies tune families in American Shape-notehymns, which motivates for a cross-cultural approach.Expertise in Greek musicology is high, especially in terms oftheory and history.


http://people.sju.edu/~rhall/research.htm







Why is music interesting?

Tutorials@ISMIR:2012: Why is jazz interesting?2013: Why is Brazilian guitar interesting?2014: Why is Greek music interesting?2015: Why is ... interesting?

Each of these tutorials revealed aspects that especially in theircombination are unique to the presented forms of musicalexpression.Inspiring series of tutorials that increases awareness of thecommunity for the diversity among the musics of the world.But if MIR aims at developing individual approaches for allindividual styles, how long might that take?








Music a universal language? What means universal?

Music universalA property of music that can be encountered in almost all musicalstyles in the world.

Wide agreement in ethnomusicology that music is universal, butnot a universal language.Phenomena that maybe perceived as music by cultural outsidersare not categorized as music within a culture (e.g. Koranic chantin islam).Musical expression differs widely in the various parts of the world.What kind of universals might there be?


Music universals

Ideas from ethnomusicology Nettl (2005)Redundancy and repetition are important.Music consists of building blocks taken from a cultural repertoire.All cultures have singing, and intervals around the major secondare most frequent.Most cultures have scales, with certain properties dominating(e.g. non-equal interval size).Pitch in musical utterances seems to descend at the end.All cultures have rhythmic structure based on the distinctionamong lengths and among dynamic stresses.Probably, all cultures have dance, and use words in singing.Music is not the universal language, but musics are not asmutually unintelligible as languages.


Music universals

Ideas from music psychology Stevens and Byron (2009)Impact of psychological and biological factors on music wellrecognized (Nettl, 2005; Blacking, 1992).Small integer frequency ratios (tonal and durational) preferred.Perception of rhythmic groups of up to 5s (Note: however, thereare much longer meters.)Music is hierarchically organized in tonal and temporalstructures that depend on cultural background.Capacity to develop expentancies may be a universal process.Statistical learning underlies the development of musicalexpectations ((McMullen & Saffran, 2004)).Close coupling of perception and action might be a universal.Harwood (1976) called for emphasis in research on musicalprocesses rather than musical content.


Implications for MIR

There are psychological and biological constraints that determinebasic properties of music (hierarchies, frequency ratios, repetition,body movement).On that basis, music is a cultural expression that develops its ownaesthetic rules.In order to understand any aspect of a music, these rules must belearnt.

Music analysis: a proposed categorizationAgnostic: ignores completely the influence of style on analysis.Adapted: approaches tailored towards properties of a certainstyle.Adaptable: approaches that can be extended to a style bychanging parameters in a transparent and intuitive way.Universal: approaches that give concise answers on all styles,guided by constraints from perception and biology.



Music analysis: a proposed categorizationAgnostic: can be applied on aspects where style is of noimportance (e.g. possibly singer recognition).Adapted: Adequate if expert knowledge is available and “target”style is known.Adaptable: Should be targeted if a deeper understanding ofcultural concepts is targeted (e.g. beat tracking).Universal: It is worth discussing how such approaches can gobeyond determining properties in the surface of the signal, as e.g.tonal scale material.



ConclusionArriving at a deeper understanding of music necessitates alearning process.This learning process is based on examples from the targetedcontext, or at least very similar contexts.Question (to the audience): How far are we in MIR fromalgorithms that can guarantee proper analysis of a majority ofimportant aspects from arbitrary music signals?








Turnaround in the record industry

IFPI Digital Music Report 2014Recorded music revenues in most major markets have returned togrowth.Music streaming and subscription is a mainstream model thatpushes revenues.In 2013: 5.9bn USD revenue in digital channels, which is 39% ofthe total revenue.Important for the continuation of the trend are the developingcountries (invreases of often more than 100%!).Mobile technology and licensed services enable for distribution indeveloping countries.In most countries, charts are dominated by local music.Success of digital services depends on good recommendation.


Suggestion: Stop playing down importance of MIR

The recording industry is not a dying species.We face a massive re-structuring in the industry, towards mobiletechnology and digital distribution.Within this process, MIR tools will be applied in culturallyextremely diverse digital cultures."Forms of digital music cultures differ radically in the developedand in the developing world“ (MusDig ERC project,http://musdig.music.ox.ac.uk/).

Important questionsWhat are the consequences when MIR software is applied indigital markets on musical forms it was never evaluated for?If there are any consequences, should we actually worry aboutthem?








Ethic codes, Computer ethics

Ethic codesAfter more than 100 years of development, codes of theics areintegral part of our professional associations (e.g. ACM, IEEE).Engineers are obliged to ”improve their understanding of theenvironment in which their software and related documents will beused“, and to ”fairly treat all persons“.

Computer- or Information EthicsAbove codes were influenced by discourse in these fields.Information ethics ((Floridi, 2008)): ethical challenges in the worldof data, information, and knowledge.Computer ethics ((Bynum & Rogerson, 2003)): ethical problemsaggravated, transformed, and created by computer technology.


http://www.acm.org/about/se-code

http://www.ieee.org/about/corporate/governance/p7-8.html

Why should MIR think about that?

Constraints on system design (Huff, 2003)Level 1 System design issues, tradeoffs in design and performanceLevel 2 Company policies, specifications, budgets, project timelinesLevel 3 Anticipated uses and effects: interactions with other technologies and systemsLevel 4 Larger ”impact on society issues“ (e.g. privacy, property, power, equity)

We limit our constraints to the ”engineering levels“ 1 and 2.But our actions have unintentional consequences, and oursoftware unintentional power.We escape in

1 ethical neutrality (computing as a problem solving exercise).2 seeing responsibility as pure liability (we are often remote from the

impact of our work).

Academic research even more remote from users than actualsoftware development.Life is simple in our academic bubble of low level constraints.


What might be the consequences if we don’t care?

Suggestion 2: Information ethical (IE) consequenceMusic has been informationally enriched in digital environments,similar to e.g. money, war, or privacy (Moor, 2003).Music in its digital form represents a piece of information.According to IE, a piece of information is considered a being with

1 the right to persist in its own status2 being respected in its integrity in the interaction with agents.

Example: does a musician agree in his piece being reduced totimbral features and compared with arbitrary other sounds?Discussing such issues can improve our communication withartists and musicologists.



Suggestion 2: Unfair treatment due to potential biasComputer systems are often biased, i.e. they sytematically andunfairly discriminate against certain individuals orgroups (Friedman & Nissenbaum, 1996).Example of recommendation systems was discussed by Bozdag(2013): note mere algorithms, but systems influenced by humanbehaviour and concepts.Three forms of bias:

1 Pre-existing: the average MIR developer is 30 years old, white,male, engineer.

2 Technical bias: e.g. dicretize into genres, beat evaluationmeasures.

3 Emergent: unforeseen usage (the piano...).

Information intermediaries (e.g. music recommendation) becomethe emergent gate keepers of our society.



Suggestion 1: Unfair treatment due to potential biasIndustry might be OK with that: dominance of majors inhibitsinnovation in music markets (Christianen, 1995),and lower diversity is much easier to handle in musicdistribution/recommendation.But engineering would deprive musicians of fair treatment, andignore the obligation to improve understanding of environment ofusage.


Strategies for MIR

Some ideas, to be discussed...Be aware of socially diverse music markets (see MusDig project).Discuss within community/institution/company.Clearly define the scope of considerations in projects of all size.Disseminate information to clients/public (no blackbox).Create transparent software/documentation.Adaptation of software to new environments possible fornon-expert.Rethink terminology (ground truth, datasets), and view of music asstatic data.








Datasets

Collection of monophonic patterns of the Greek traditional clarinet for thetask of isolated pattern recognition. Provided upon request foracademic, non-profit purposes by Angelos Pikrakis ([email protected]).

Large collection of tracks for rhythm detection in Greek traditional music.Cannot be distributed but author can perform feature extraction if thealgorithm is provided in MIREX like specs (Angelos Pikrakis).

Dataset of Cretan dance recordings in 6 classes. Provided upon requestfor academic, non-profit purposes by Andre Holzapfel.

Collection of field recordings from Thrace (http://epth.sfm.gr/).

Collection of field recordings of Cretan music by Amargianakis:http://thalitas.ims.forth.gr, http://digitalcrete.ims.forth.gr/MusicalRoutes/,and http://crinnos.ims.forth.gr/

Collection of Cretan field recordings at Phonogramm-Archiv in Vienna.Currently 50h audio, 160h Video. Guest account can be provided foraccess from Andre Holzapfel.

http://www.musicportal.gr/ is a very informative webportal for all kinds ofGreek music.


Datasets

Cretan melodies in MIDI format, available on request from ChristinaAnagnostopoulou ([email protected]).


Some more references

A model for asymmetric rhythm was proposed by Fouloulis, Pikrakis, andCambouropoulos (2013).

Overviews in English language of music in the Balkans: (Samson,2013), (Belonis et al., 2009).

An exhaustive list of Ph.D. theses (in Greek language):http://www.didaktorika.gr/eadd/


Antonopoulos, I., Pikrakis, A., Theodoridis, S., Cornelis, O., Moelants, D., & Leman, M. (2007). Music retrieval by rhythmic similarity appliedon greek and african traditional music. In Proc. of ismir - international conference on music information retrieval. Vienna, Austria.

Beaton, R. (1980). Modes and roads: Factors of change and continuity in greek musical tradition. Annual of the British School of Archeologyat Athens, 75, 1-11.

Belonis, Y., Milanovic, B., Milin, M., Poulakis, N., Romanou, K., & Tomasevic, K. (2009). Serbian and greek art music (K. Romanou, Ed.).Bristol, UK: Intellect.

Blacking, J. (1992). The biology of music-making. In H. Myers (Ed.), Ethnomusicology: An introduction (p. 301-314). New York: Norton.Bozdag, E. (2013). Bias in algorithmic filtering and personalization. Ethics and Information Technology, 15(3), 209-227.Bynum, T. W., & Rogerson, S. (2003). Computer ethics and professional responsibility (T. W. Bynum & S. Rogerson, Eds.). Blackwell.Cambouropoulos, E., Kaliakatsos-Papakostas, M., & Tsougras, C. (2014). An idiom-independent representation of chords for computational

music analysis and generation. In Proceeding of the joint 11th sound and music computing conference (smc) and 40th internationalcomputer music conference (icmc).

Christianen, M. (1995). Cycles in symbol production? a new model to explain concentration, diversity and innovation in the music industry.Popular Music, 14(1), 55-93.

Sentürk, S., Holzapfel, A., & Serra, X. (2014). Linking scores and audio recordings in makam music of Turkey. Journal for New MusicResearch, 43(1), 34-52. Retrieved from MMILab-Andre_files/senturk2014SectionLinkingJNMR_aspublished.pdf

Dalitz, C., Michalakis, G., & Pranzas, C. (2008). Optical recognition of psaltic byzantine chant notation. International Journal of DocumentAnalysis and Recognition (IJDAR), 11(3), 143-158. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10032-008-0074-4 doi:10.1007/s10032-008-0074-4

Delviniotis, D., & Kouroupetroglou, G. (2011). Damaskinos: The prototype corpus of Greek orthodox ecclesiastical chant voices. InInternational Conference Crossroads. Thessaloniki, Greece.

Dragoumis, M. (1966). The survival of the byzantine chant in the monophonic music of the modern greek church. In E. Wellesz &M. Velimirovic (Eds.), Studies in eastern chant (p. 9-36). Oxford University Press.

Floridi, L. (2008). Foundations of information ethics. In The handbook of information and computer ethics (p. 38-59). Wiley.Fouloulis, T., Pikrakis, A., & Cambouropoulos, E. (2013). Traditional asymmetric rhythms: a refined model of meter induction based on

asymmetric meter templates. In In proceedings of the 3rd international workshop on folk music analysis (fma).Friedman, B., & Nissenbaum, H. (1996). Bias in computer systems. ACM Transactions on Information Systems, 14(3), 330-347.Gezerlis, V., & Theodoridis, S. (2000). An optical music recognition system for the notation of the orthodox hellenic byzantine music. In

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mediterranean island. Vienna Series in Ethnomusicology, in press.Holzapfel, A., & Stylianou, Y. (2009). A scale transform based method for rhythmic similarity of music. In Proceedings of the ieee international

conference on acoustics, speech, and signal processing (icassp) (p. 317-320). Retrieved fromMMILab-Andre_files/ICASSP09.pdf

Holzapfel, A., & Stylianou, Y. (2010). Parataxis: Morphological similarity in traditional music. In Proceedings of ismir - international conferenceon music information retrieval. Retrieved from MMILab-Andre_files/HolzapfelISMIR2010.pdf

Holzapfel, A., & Stylianou, Y. (2011). Scale transform in rhythmic similarity of music. IEEE Transactions on Audio, Speech and LanguageProcessing, 19(1), 176-185. Retrieved from MMILab-Andre_files/HolzapfelIEEEScale.pdf

Huff, C. (2003). Unintentional poswer in the design of computing systems. In Computer ethics and professional responsibility (p. 98-106).Blackwell.

Kaliakatsos-Papakostas, M., Katsiavalos, A., Tsougras, C., & Cambouropoulos, E. (2014). Harmony in the polyphonic songs of epirus:Representation, statistical analysis and generation. In Proceedings of the international workshop on folk music analysis (fma).

Kosta, K., Song, Y., Fazekas, G., & Sandler, M. B. (2013). A study of cultural dependence of perceived mood in greek music. In Proc. ofISMIR - International Conference on Music Information Retrieval.

Lerdahl, F., & Jackendoff, R. (1983). A generative theory of tonal music. MIT Press Cambridge.Lolis, K. (2006). To eipirotikó polyfonikó tragoúdi. Ioannina.Mavromatis, P. (2009). Minimum description length modeling of musical structure. Journal of Mathematics and Music, 3(3), 117-136.McMullen, E., & Saffran, J. R. (2004). Music and language: A developmental comparison. Music Perception, 21(3), 289-311.Moor, J. H. (2003). Reason, relativity, and responsibility in computer ethics. In Computer ethics and professional responsibility (p. 21-38).

Blackwell.Nettl, B. (2005). The study of ethnomusicology: Thirty-one issues and concepts. University of Illinois Press.Panteli, M., & Purwins, H. (2013). A quantitative comparison of chrysanthine theory and performance practice of scale tuning, steps, and

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MMILab-Andre_files/senturk2014SectionLinkingJNMR_aspublished.pdf

http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10032-008-0074-4

MMILab-Andre_files/ICASSP09.pdf

MMILab-Andre_files/HolzapfelISMIR2010.pdf

MMILab-Andre_files/HolzapfelIEEEScale.pdf

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Why is Greek music interesting: Towards an ethics of MIR