BRASS: Visualizing Scores for Assisting Music Learning

2021

We present an online environment for the design of musical scores, also allowing for the embedding of signal processors and hence the publication of electronic works. This environment is part of the INScore project. Its latest version has been transcribed to WebAssembly/Javascript to provide in a web browser the same features as in its native counterpart: the diversity of music representations supported by INScore, the interaction capabilities and all the dynamic aspects of the score. After some historical elements about distributed musical scores, we will provide some reminders about the INScore project and its associated description language. We will then describe the architecture of the system and the choices made for its portability to the Web. Then, we will present the extensions specific to the Javascript version and in particular the support of signal processing objects. Finally, we will show how INScore's communication system has been extended to allow online musical score control from a native version of INScore, paving the way for real-time performance on the web.

The field of music performance analysis has been slow to benefit from the development of computer graphics due to the difficulties in representing musical performance alongside the score inside a computer. A workflow is presented for the computer representation of musical performance using tools being developed at the Centre for Music Technology at the University of Glasgow. The process begins with the recording of a MIDI file of a performance. This file is converted to an XML representation which is combined with an XML representation of the score. A notematching algorithm creates links between the performed notes and the score notes. The data is transferred to a database where it is queried for musically significant passages and their performance traits. A graphical score in SVG format is produced using the Lilypond typesetting software which is overlaid with performance data from the database query.

2000

Hyperscore is a graphical, computer-assisted composition system that allows users to intuitively visualize and edit musical structures. It maps musical features to graphi- cal elements such as color, shape, and line texture. These graphical elements allow users to control both high and low-level musical features such as pitch, dynamics, melodic contour, and harmonic tension. Hyperscore facilitates com- position by providing

2011

Vuzik is an interface designed to empower people to create digital music by painting. Through an intuitive mapping of sound to visuals designed to be simple enough for a child to comprehend, Vuzik uses a painting metaphor to enable people to compose and perform music through simple painting gestures and effectively "see" their music as they hear it. Our paper presents the design of Vuzik, details the implementation of the current prototype, and discusses the preliminary user evaluation we performed and how it informs our coming design efforts. We envision that Vuzik will help both the creator and audience better understand music's construction, thereby making the composition of music more accessible to children and novices, and opening up new ways to create and express music.

Proceedings of the SMC Conferences, 2013

Although a variety of interfaces for music retrieval have been proposed so far, they are not always valid for retrieving classical music, a piece of which is recorded by many players. The lineup that current music retrieval systems suggest for a given musical piece is likely to be in order of sales. This is not always desired by classical music lovers, who are interested in various interpretations of a piece. In this paper, PEVI, a novel interface based on a scape plot for finding interpretations of classical music, is presented. The scape plot window, which visualizes the most similar performances of a specified scope (multiple layers) in a specified piece by using color tags, is used as the key to assigning a range of musical pieces to be referred to. Similar performances are displayed, on a different window, as their coordinates represent the similarity of two selected musical features in regard to tempo, dynamics, and delicate control within a beat. Users of PEVI are able to observe the transition of the indices of similar performances by changing the scope on the scape plot and each weight of the musical features. In this paper, the effectiveness of PEVI is discussed with an analysis of difference performances of "Romance de Amor."

2001

The conception and design of new musical interfaces is a multidisciplinary area that tightly relates technology and artistic creation. In this paper, the author first exposes some of the questions he has posed himself during more than a decade experience as a performer, composer, interface and software designer, and educator. Finally, he illustrates these topics with some examples of his work.

2017

Standard western notation supports the understanding and performance of music, but has limited provisions for revealing overall musical characteristics and structure. This paper presents several visualisers for highlighting and providing insights into musical structures, including rhythm, pitch, and interval transitions, also noting how these elements modulate over time. The visualisations are presented in the context of Shneiderman’s Visual Information-Seeking Mantra, and terminology from the Cognitive Dimensions of Music Notations usability framework. Such techniques are designed to make understanding musical structure quicker, easier, less error prone, and take better advantage of the intrinsic pattern recognition abilities of humans.

2005

This paper describes the development of a computer-based music visualisation to support the development of instrumental musical skills in advanced students and professional players. The underlying pedagogical philosophy, based on the" Natural Learning Process" and the emergence of an artistic rather than engineering approach to software development, based on participatory design, are described.

Musical Instruments in the 21st Century, 2016

This chapter explores the role of visual representation of sound in music software. Software design often remediates older technologies, such as common music notation, the analogue tape, outboard studio equipment, as well as applying metaphors from acoustic and electric instruments. In that context, the aim here will be study particular modes in which abstract shapes, symbols and innovative notations can be applied in systems for composition and live performance. Considering the practically infinite possibilities of representation of sound in digital systems-both in terms of visual display and mapping of gestural controllers to sound-the concepts of graphic design, notation and performance will be discussed in relation to four systems created by the author: ixi software, ixiQuarks, ixi lang, and the Threnoscope live coding environment. These will be presented as examples of limited systems that frame the musician's compositional thoughts providing a constrained palette of musical possibilities. What this software has in common is the integral use of visual elements in musical composition, equally as prescriptive and representative notation for musical processes. The chapter will present the development of musical software as a form of composition: it is an experimental activity that goes hand in hand with sound and music research, where the musician-programmer has to gain a formal understanding of diverse domains that before might have been tacit knowledge. The digital system's requirements for abstractions of the source domain, specifications of material, and completeness of definitions are all features that inevitably require a very strong understanding of the source domain.

Proceedings of the …, 2009

The coordinated storage of performance data in such a way that it can be used across multiple projects is problematic: general purpose systems which can store gestural, score and other performance data are not generally available.