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From: sandell@ferret.ils.nwu.edu (Greg Sandell)
Newsgroups: comp.music,rec.music.classical
Subject: Re: Computer research in Schenkerian analysis
Message-ID: <1325@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 18 Oct 89 15:03:49 GMT
References: <5013@orca.WV.TEK.COM>
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Reply-To: sandell@ferret (Greg Sandell)
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In article <5013@orca.WV.TEK.COM> steveb@eve.WV.TEK.COM () writes:
>I have long been contemplating writing software that can analyze tonal music
>via Schenker techniques.  Every time I attempt to scope out the problem I seem
>to increase in complexity by an order of magnitude.  I am looking for folks who
>have attempted to tackle this problem.  Specifically I am looking for 
>collaborators but I would be happy to start with references in the literature.
>I am also looking for information on potential file formats and encoding
>schemes for the input side.  Any information would be extremely helpful.
>
>Steve
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>FROM:        STEVEN C. BILOW --  Software Engineer,  Tektronix
>EMAIL:	     steveb@orca.WV.TEK.COM     PHONE:  (503) 685-2463  
>USMAIL:      P.O. Box 1000 61-028, Wilsonville, OR  97070-1000

Stephen Smoliar, no stranger to the net (esp. rec.music.classical) has an
article titled "A computer aid for Schenkerian analysis," COMPUTER MUSIC 
JOURNAL 4/2, 41-59.  Another item is by James
Snell (1979), "Design for a formal system for deriving tonal music,"
but you will find it practically impossible to find since it is a
Master's thesis (State University of New York at Binghamton).  

Lerdahl & Jackendoff's A GENERATIVE THEORY OF TONAL MUSIC (MIT Press,
1983) contains a hierarchical theory of music which is Schenker-like
in flavor.  One particularly nice thing about the approach is that
the rules are fairly explicit, which lends itself more to a
computational treatment than raw Schenker theory.

I think the problem is well worth working on, although as you say, it
will be very complex.  The fact that music theorists frequently 
disagree as to what consititutes a `correct' Schenkerian analysis
shows that much of the theory is arcane and implicit.  (By the way,
you can always tell if someone is a truely devoted follower of
Schenker if they use the word `correct' alot in their writings.)
My advice, for what it's worth, is to pick a very simple musical
domain (e.g. early 18th century minuets) and try to acheive
success there first.

Good luck,
Greg Sandell

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* Greg Sandell, Institute for Learning Sciences, Evanston, IL *
* sandell@ferret.ils.nwu.edu                                  *
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