Catherine Guastavino, Fabrice Marandola and Godfried Toussaint: "Perception of meter similarity in flamenco music"

ABSTRACT:
 Flamenco music is characterized by hand clapping patterns in which the underlying meter is manifested through accented claps. A mathematical analysis of the five 12/8 metric patterns used in flamenco music was recently conducted to establish several musicological hypotheses. This analysis relies on the similarity between the metric patterns estimated by mathematic distances. Our project investigates the notion of similarity for rhythmic patterns by comparing mathematical similarity measures with perceptual similarity judgments for the five basic hand-clapping patterns used in flamenco music. We will present the first results of listening tests with both non-musicians and trained percussionists. This project aims to determine which mathematical measures best match human judgments, as a function of expertise. Future directions include extensions to polyrhythms in Central African music and contemporary music.