Folk Music
Persona
Mark
Goal
Mark is interested in understanding how Dutch folk tunes relate to other music, e.g. from French court operas.
Scenario
Starting from a collection of Dutch folk tunes, Mark attempts to relate these tunes to other documented music, using a variety of databases. Mark would like to relate individual pieces of music, but also repertoires generally. He would also like to understand musical evolution and transmission over time.
Competency questions
CQ1: Is a composer known for composition X?
CQ2: What is the name of the composer specified in the source of this composition?
CQ3: What is the similarity between compositions X and Y given similarity measure Z?
CQ4: Which tunes are similar to tune X given similarity measure Y?
CQ5: Who (which source) attributed composition X to composer Y?
CQ6: Which are all known concordances (same composition/tune in another source)?
CQ7: Which concordances of composition X have a composer name associated?
CQ8: What is the geographic origin of source X?
CQ9: Who were the owners of (manuscript) source X?
CQ10: Who was/were the scribe(s) of (manuscript) source X?
CQ11: What was the repertoire of scribe X (i.e. all compostions written down by X)?
CQ12: Who was the publisher of (printed) source X?
CQ13: What is publication year of printed source X?
CQ14: Which are all compositions that are in source X?
CQ15: What is current location of source X?
CQ16: Where to find a digital scan of source X (url)?
CQ17: What is the title of composition X in source Y?
CQ18: What is the tune indication of composition X in source Y?
CQ19: On what page (or folio) is composition X in source Y?
CQ20: What is the serial number of composition X in source Y?
CQ21: What printed source shares content with manuscript X?
CQ22: What is the language of the lyrics of tune X?
CQ23: Has composition X been identified as variant in a tune family?
CQ24: Which tune family does composition X belong to?
CQ25: Who assigned composition X to tune family Y?
CQ26: With what level of confidence is composition X a variant in tune family Y?
CQ27: What are all compositions in tune family X?
CQ28: What are the similarities / differences of all compositions in tune family X according to measure Y?
CQ29: To what tune families is tune family X related, given similarity measure Y?
CQ30: What are alternative titles for composition X?
CQ31: What are the differences / similarities between two corpora of compositions concerning features Y1..Yn?
CQ32: What are longitudinal differences / similarities within a corpus concerning features Y1..Yn?
CQ33: What are the differences / similarities between two corpora of compositions concerning occurrences of patterns?
CQ34: What are longitudinal differences / similarities within a corpus concerning occurrences of patterns?
CQ35: What patterns do the compositions in corpus X share?
CQ36: What patterns are overrepresented in corpus X compared to corpus Y?
Resources
Mark works with:
RISM index of musical sources, composers etc https://opac.rism.info/main-menu-/kachelmenu with the ability to search on names and music
NEUMA, a digital library of musical scores http://neuma.huma-num.fr/home/presentation
ABC notation database http://abcnotation.com/
Database of Dutch tunes http://www.liederenban.nl and http://www.liederebank.nl/mtc
Early American Secular Music and its European sources http://www.cdss.org/elibrary/Easmes/Index.htm
Mark’s work could be helped by:
Connection to other databases, so that he could automatically query a range of databases
Remarks
Requirements for UI:
- visualize changes in musical style over time, e.g. transition from modal to tonal (evolution curves - see Weiss et al. 2018 ‘Investigating style evolution of Western classical music: A computational approach’) - with zooming
- visualize interconnections, e.g. of tunes which share melodic patterns or geographical origin.
- vizualize the circulation of certain repertoires (e.g. Italian opera).
Previous set of CQs. These are quite abstract, but not yet all covered by the set of CQs in the section above.
CQ1: Can we identify a tune (e.g. from an oral tradition) in our collection with music in another documented collection, e.g. RISM, NEUMA, ABC
CQ2: Can we trace the origin of a melody (composer)?
CQ2: Can we compare music from different collections, e.g. from different countries to show connections/influences between musical styles?
CQ3: Can we compare music longitudinally, e.g. to see evolution of tonality and transition from modal to tonal? Working either at manuscript of collection level.
CQ4: Can we visualize changes in musical style over time, e.g. transition from modal to tonal (evolution curves - see Weiss et al. 2018 ‘Investigating style evolution of Western classical music: A computational approach’) - with zooming
CQ5: Can we visualize interconnections, e.g. of tunes which share melodic patterns or geographical origin?
CQ6: Can we link repertoires by scribes?
CQ7: Do ‘national’ repertoires have specific characteristics in terms of frequent patterns?
CQ8: How does translation (of lyrics) affect variation in the melody?
CQ9: Which aspects of melody vary and which remain stable in the process of transmission and adaptation?
CQ10: How did certain repertoires (e.g., Italian opera) circulate?
CQ11: What are the connections between printed sources and manuscripts? (manuscripts could be copies of printed sources)