Onset and Contiguity

Abstract

Onset (metric position) and contiguity (pitch adjacency and time proximity) are two melodic features that contribute to the salience of individual notes (core tones) in a monophonic voice or polyphonic texture. Our approach to reductions prioritizes contextual features like onset and contiguity. By awarding points to notes with such features, our process selects core tones from melodic surfaces to produce a reduction. Through this reduction, a new form of musical pattern discovery is possible that has similarities to Gjerdingen’s (".fn_cite_year($gjerdingen_2007).") galant schemata. Recurring n-grams (scale degree skeletons) are matched in an algorithmic approach that we have tested manually (with a printed score and pen and paper) and implemented computationally (with symbolic data and scripted algorithms in MATLAB). A relatively simple method successfully identifies the location of all statements of the subject in Bach’s Fugue in C Minor (BWV 847) identified by Bruhn (".fn_cite_year($bruhn_1993).") and the location of all instances of the Prinner and Meyer schemata in Mozart’s Sonata in C Major (K. 545/i) identified by Gjerdingen (".fn_cite_year($gjerdingen_2007)."). We also apply the method to an excerpt by Kirnberger analyzed in Rabinovitch (".fn_cite_year($rabinovitch_2019)."). Analysts may use this flexible method for pattern discovery in reduced textures through software freely accessible at https://www.atavizm.org. While our case studies in the present article are from eighteenth-century European music, we believe our approach to reduction and pattern discovery is extensible to a variety of musics.