Dave Headlam: Auto and cross-correlation techniques for data mining inquiries into Palestrina Masses

ABSTRACT: 

Auto and Cross Correlation are used extensively in signal processing, as a way of finding structure (periodic redundancies) by systematically comparing rotated versions of the signals.  The calculations are in the Fourier transform family, and benefit from transformation between time- and frequency-based representations.  Less used are similar methods on pitch and durational strings as a way of identifying formal sections and motivic content, as well as contour similarities.  Using midi files from the 100 or so Palestrina Masses and matlab programs (including the MIR miditoolbox), a series of questions will be posed and some initial answers posited about structure in these pieces:  for instance, how much formal structure can we find?  Did Palestrina use something like invertible counterpoint?  What are the common and least common intervals, chords, successions, etc.

 

ABOUT DAVE HEADLAM:

A member of the Music Theory Department at the Eastman School of Music, the University of Rochester since 1985, Dave Headlam is currently half-time in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of Rochester, as a joint Professor of Electrical Engineering. Headlam has published and presented in the areas of twelve-tone theory, tonal rhythm, popular music, sketch studies, computer applications in music research, acoustics, music and technology, and music post-1900, including the music of Alban Berg and George Perle. He is author of "The Music of Alban Berg" (1996), which received the Ascap Deems Taylor Award in 1997. Professor Headlam is administrator of the Eastman Multimedia and Research Computing Lab, and co-director of the Music Research Lab.