Make Me a Match: An Evaluation of Different Approaches to Score - Performance Matching

(2000). Make me a match: An evaluation of different approaches to score-performance matching. ABSTRACT — A matcher is an algorithm that links events in a musical performance to the corresponding events in a score. Matching is difficult because performers make errors, performers use expressive timing , and scores are frequently underspecified. In this article, two existing matchers are discussed. A general control structrure is described that is used to respecify these matchers, in order to be able to compare them. A new matcher is proposed that uses structural annotations in the score to deal better with the difficulties in matching. 1 Background Composers of classical music traditionally create musical scores, which musicians translate into performances. A score specifies which notes should be played in what order, and gives information about tempo, loudness, articulation, and structure. The score also contains symbols indicating ornaments like trills, grace notes and glissandi. Whereas information about pitch, note onset, and note duration is unambiguous, information about tempo, loudness, phrasing, articulation, and ornaments is generally not. Before we explore the relation between scores and performances, we must clarify some terminology. We have to distinguish between a score in musical notation (paper score) and a computational representation of that score (score representation). Similarly, the act of performing music (live performance) will be distinguished from a computationally represented performance (performance representation). In this paper, performances are restricted to MIDI recordings of piano music. In these kinds of performances, the pitch, onset, and duration of every note are clearly defined. We do not consider other aspects of notes, such as timbre or loudness. paper score score computer representation listener matcher performance live performance MIDI recording performer Figure 1: The relation between paper scores, live performances, computer representations of scores and computer representations of performances.