Content-Based Analysis of Post-Tonal Music

Analysis of post-tonal music by pitch-class set theory is one of the most significant areas in music research, among which most work focuses on analyzing and comparing a limited number of music compositions. Comparative study across numerous compositions is difficult because the identification of possible music patterns occurred in compositions an important aspect of pitch-class set theory is highly timeconsuming and error-prone when it is done manually. In this paper, we formalize this musical analysis problem and build a content-based analysis system for post-tonal music. The key ideas are: (a) representation of post-tonal music in the form of sequences can be analyzed by pitch-class set theory, (b) formulation of the matching conditions of pitch-class set theory, and (c) design and implementation of an algorithm for analysis of post-tonal music.