Modelling experts’ notions of melodic similarity

Abstract

In this article we show that a subgroup of music experts has a reliable and consistent notion of melodic similarity, and that this notion can be measured with satisfactory precision. Our measurements enable us to model the similarity ratings of music experts by automated and algorithmic means. A large number of algorithmic similarity measure found in the literature were mathematically systematised and implemented. The best similarity algorithms compared to human experts were chosen and optimised by statistical means according to different contexts. A multidimensional scaling model of the algorithmic similarity measures is constructed to give an overiew over the different musical dimensions reflected by these measures. We show some examples where this optimised methods could be successfully applied to real world problems like folk song categorisation and analysis, and discuss further applications and implications.