DMUN at the MediaEval 2015 C@merata Task: The Stravinsqi Algorithm

This paper describes the Stravinsqi-Jun2015 algorithm, and evaluates its performance on the MediaEval 2015 C@merata task. Stravinsqi stands for STaff Representation Analysed VIa Natural language String Query Input. The algorithm parses a query string that consists of a natural language expression concerning a symbolically represented piece of music (which the algorithm parses also), and then identifies where in the music event(s) specified by the query occur. For a given query, the output is a list of time windows specifying the locations of the relevant events. Time windows output by the algorithm can be compared with time windows specified by music experts for the same querypiece combinations. Across a collection of twenty pieces and 200 questions, Stravinsqi-Jun2015 had recall .794 and precision .316 at the measure level, and recall .739 and precision .294 at the beat level. The paper undertakes a preliminary analysis of where Stravinsqi might be improved, identifies applications of the C@merata task within the contexts of music education and music listening more generally, and provides a constructive critique of some of the question categories that are new this year.