Synthesis of Turkish Makam music scores using an adaptive tuning approach (original) (raw)
Related papers
A Corpus for Computational Research of Turkish Makam Music
2014
Each music tradition has its own characteristics in terms of melodic, rhythmic and timbral properties as well as semantic understandings. To analyse, discover and explore these culture-specific characteristics, we need music collections which are representative of the studied aspects of the music tradition. For Turkish makam music, there are various resources available such as audio recordings, music scores, lyrics and editorial metadata. However, most of these resources are not typically suited for computational analysis, are hard to access, do not have su cient quality or do not include adequate descriptive information. In this paper we present a corpus of Turkish makam music created within the scope of the CompMusic project. The corpus is intended for computational research and the primary considerations during the creation of the corpus reflect some criteria, namely, purpose, coverage, completeness, quality and re-usability. So far, we have gathered approximately 6000 audio recordings, 2200 music scores with lyrics and 27000 instances of editorial metadata related to Turkish makam music. The metadata include information about makams, recordings, scores, compositions , artists etc. as well as the interrelations between them. In this paper, we also present several test datasets of Turkish makam music. Test datasets contain manual annotations by experts and they provide ground truth for specific computational tasks to test, calibrate and improve the research tools. We hope that this research corpus and the test datasets will facilitate academic studies in several fields such as music information retrieval and computational musicology.
A CULTURE-SPECIFIC ANALYSIS SOFTWARE FOR MAKAM MUSIC TRADITIONS
Computational analysis of traditional music recordings often requires culture-specific problem definition and methodologies. Our previous efforts were directed towards developing technology for computational analysis of Turkish makam music which shares many common features with other maqam/makam traditions such as Arabic and Persian traditional music. This study presents an interactive tuning analysis tool developed with sufficient flexibility for parameter settings. We demonstrate that the tool can be effectively used for tuning analysis of Turkish music, Arabic music and Persian music once the appropriate settings are supplied by the user, using the interface of the tool.
Automatic transcription of Turkish makam music
In this paper we propose an automatic system for transcribing makam music of Turkey. We document the specific traits of this music that deviate from properties that were targeted by transcription tools so far and we compile a dataset of makam recordings along with aligned microtonal ground-truth. An existing multi-pitch detection algorithm is adapted for transcribing music in 20 cent resolution, and the final transcription is centered around the tonic frequency of the recording. Evaluation metrics for transcribing microtonal music are utilized and results show that transcription of Turkish makam music in e.g. an interactive transcription software is feasible using the current state-of-the-art.
2020
This study is the continuation of an older musicological work I had co-authored with Bozkurt et al. [2009, JNMR:38/1 pp.45-70], where I now analyze the match between several more alternative theoretical models and the histogram peaks of collated pitch measurements from audio recordings in 9 makam categories by prominent Turkish musicians. Previously, these histogram peaks were pitted against 53-tone Equal Temperament (53-tET), Yekta-Arel-Ezgi-Uzdilek (the 24-tone Pythagorean tuning in force), Yarman-24a (its notable substitute), Karadeniz-41 (a subset of 106-tET) and Yavuzoğlu-48 (in 48-tET). This time, new results indicate an outstanding marksmanship in the contrivance of 79 MOS 159-tET (my 79-tone Qanun tuning) above all others. A "Just Noticeable Difference" (JND) of solely 7-8 cents (¢) unweighted maximum divergence from the histogram peaks-in comparison to the as much as "half a comma" corresponding divergences of the contending 60-tET, 65-tET and 72-tET from the same peaks-enables 79 MOS 159-tET to outclass its competition. When size is an issue however, the "bulk vs. peak-matching performance" of the mentioned three immediate rivals to the 79-tone Qanun tuning are over the top and analogous to each other. All the same, the minimalist Yarman-24 a-b-c-d variants (as direct replacements for Arel-Ezgi-Uzdilek) do, despite being about thrice as sparse, deviate from the measured peak values by only "one comma" at most while performing reasonably. The key question therefore is: "Why triple the number of conventional tones just to gain half a comma finer granularity for makams that would still remain coarse?". Likewise, one may ask: "Why double the number of tones whilst technically not managing to overcome the need for commatic alterations?" The findings are discussed in terms of which fixed-pitch approach is more optimal for traditional and modern practice in Turkish Classical/Art/Folk music.
Towards Alignment of Score and Audio Recordings of Ottoman-Turkish Makam Music
Proceedings of 4th International Workshop on Folk Music Analysis, 2014
Audio-score alignment is a multi-modal task, which facilitates many related tasks such as intonation analysis, structure analysis and automatic accompaniment. In this paper, we present a audio-score alignment methodology for the classical Ottoman-Turkish music tradition. Given a music score of a composition with structure (section) information and an audio performance of the same composition, our method first extracts a synthetic prominent pitch per section from the note values and durations in the score and a audio prominent pitch from the audio recording. Then it identifies the performed tonic frequency by using melodic information in the repetitive section in the score. Next it links each section with the time intervals where each section performed in the audio recording (i.e. structure level alignment) by comparing the extracted pitch features. Finally the score and the audio recordings are aligned in the note-level. For the initial experiments we chose DTW, a standard technique used in audio-score alignment, to show how well the state-of-the-art performs in makam musics. The results show that our method is able to handle the tonic transpositions and the structural differences with ease, however improvements, which address the characteristics of the music scores and the performances of makam musics, are needed in our note-level alignment methodology. To the best knowledge this paper presents the first audio-score alignment method proposed for makam musics.
NEMO-Online Vol. 5 No. 9, 2020
THE PRESENT-DAY MAKAM THEORY SCENERY: In a preceding musicological paper that I had co-authored, a groundbreaking analysis was performed in which we juxtaposed 5 contending tone-systems against peaks of collated histograms generated from pitch measurements of renowned masters of Turkish Classical/Art music. The theoretical models of concern were 53-tone Equal Temperament (tET) as used by the Mus2okur software; Yarman-24a as a barebones substitution for the official tone-system; the official Arel-Ezgi-Uzdilek (which is simply a restyling of Rauf Yekta’s precursor 24-tone Pythagorean tuning); the derelict Karadeniz-41 that is just a subset of 106-tET; and the contemporary Yavuzoğlu-48 that just appropriates – the way I had disclosed back then – Edward J. Hines’ 48-tET grid for makams – with the first two tunings coming out on top, and the last two acquiring the worst overall rank (i.e., they overshoot or undershoot performed pitches by no less than “a whole comma” in general due to either poor choices or technical hardships in the suitable determination of given makam scales).
Weighing several theoretical models on Makam music against pitch-histograms
Ozan Yarman is a Pianist-Composer-Music Theorist born in 1978 in Istanbul. He received his Ph.D. degree in Musicology from the Istanbul Technical University Turkish Music State Conservatory with the unanimous decision of the jury for his dissertation “79tone Tuning & Theory for Turkish Maqam Music” in 2008. Since early 2000, he fortified his Classical/Contemporary Western music background with research into microtonal music and makam theory, insofar as inclining towards producing some unorthodox Turkish and Turko-Western works. He additionally plays Qanun, bowed Tanbur and Ney as an amateur. He is a faculty member of Istanbul University State Conservatory as a full professor under its Musicology Department since 2017. 1 (Note from the Editors:) The editors are using in this article the Turkish terminology for maqām music, with regular plurals when nevertheless in italics. Furthermore, the Turkish ı and i appear identical in the capitalized letters, for consistency with previous pu...
ZWILLINGE VERLAG, 2016
The long-standing conflict between the “Arel-Ezgi-Uzdilek” System and Turkish Maqam Music practice has been established through computer analyses of audio recordings by master musicians such as Neyzen Niyazi Sayın and Tanburi Necdet Yaşar. Results incontrovertibly manifest the delibarate employment of multifarious middle second intervals peculiar to the genre, yet evaded by the current model. These middle seconds are roughly expressible as 2/3, 3/4, and 4/5 tones, and often referred to by the protagonists of the Music Reformation in Türkiye during the early 20th century as “quarter-tones”. While the frequency ratios of the Pythagorean theory in effect are naturally limited by prime 3, the middle seconds observed in performance and dubbed “mücenneb bölgesi” (the mujannab zone) by Yalçın Tura require the employment of superparticular simple-integer ratios whose numerators or denominators are mathematically constrained by as high a prime as 13. Here, prime-limit denotes the mathematical constraint by the highest prime in the factorization of both the numerator and denominator of a given frequency ratio for any set of intervals in a Just Intonation system. It is maintained that non-conformance arose because the 24-tone Pythagorean theory in effect was specifically engendered by what may properly be named the ‘Yekta-Arel-Ezgi School’ to ward off these “quarter-tones” which allegedly affliated the Maqam Music heritage to Byzantine & Arabs. It may be said that the ‘Yekta-Arel-Ezgi School’ condoned alienating theory to practice in an effort to save the genre from the disfavour of the new regime. The author debunks the current model for falling short of accomodating played intervals, and shows that, the 24 tone Pythagorean tuning used in notation and music education embodies only five 2/3 tones and two 3/4 tones between uncommon, hence unrecognized tone pairs – that is to say, at untraversed and inconvenient locations – rendering it a model far from representing actual practice. The author predicates, furthermore, that historical and contemporary alternatives such as the 17-tone Abjad Scale, late-Ottoman Phonetic Notations like Kantemir, Osman Dede, Harutin and Hamparsum, Arabic 24-tone Scales, Oransay’s 29-tone Tuning, and Karadeniz’s 41-tone subset out of 106 equal divisions of the octave – although most of them settle into a global 106-tone equal temperament grid – cannot favourably reflect the plethora of microtones observed in performance either. Detailed analysis for each of these options is presented herein. The fact that metallic levers on qanuns called “mandals” – which are manipulated by the executant on the fly to alter the lengths of the courses – are affixed by qanun-makers on these instruments in such a way as to yield 72 equal divisions of the octave due to the common usage of standard electronic tuners imported from overseas, is proof that the widespread “53 equal commas to the octave” methodology is most likely confined to paper, and that, a higher resolution is demanded by performers of Turkish Maqam Music. Since 53-tone equal temperament does not appear to be applied to qanuns, and dividing the octave into 72 parts is none other than the sixfold elaboration of “twelve equal steps per octave” methodology of Western Music, it henceforth becomes a necessity to devise a tuning which is more compatible with Turkish Maqam Music tradition. On these grounds, a novel 79-tone tuning has been developed and implemented on a unique custom-made qanun by the author. This one-of-a-kind Turkish qanun was manufactured by Ejder Güleç in 2005, a renown instrument maker in Izmir, and acclaimed by music circles at various occasions. The 79-tone tuning, which has been derived from a subset of 159 equal divisions of the octave, is minutely explained in this work and defended as a solution to overcome persisting issues regarding the accurate representation and consistent understanding of maqamat. A complementary Sagittal Notation® has been adapted to the 79-tone tuning and explained in this dissertation. With the employment of only three microtonal accidentals in addition to ordinary sharps and flats, it becomes possible to express subtle nuances of pitch in Maqam Music. Also, Sagittal Notation® may serve as a gateway to future maqam polyphony. As a preliminary approach to 79-tone maqam theory, some main and composite maqams have been notated to demonstrate the capabilities of the 79-tone tuning. Categorizing and redefining maqams as main and composite, as opposed to their division into simple and composite/transposed in “Arel-Ezgi-Uzdilek” theory, is an innovation by the author in this thesis. Problematic maqams such as Hüzzam and Saba are consistently notated with the pitches of the 79-tone tuning. Compared to other approaches to maqam theory, the 79-tone tuning appears to be most suitable for the notation, transposition, and harmonization of complex 13-limit scales.