Online Program

Similarity, Distance, and Self-Similarity in Renaissance Music (309918)

Keywords: time series, similarity measures, classification, music, digital humanities

The CRIM project provides a collection of Renaissance Imitation Masses: musical compositions created in deliberate dialogue with previously existing pieces. For example, a single existing chanson or madrigal could be transformed into a five-part musical setting of the Catholic Mass through a mix of quotation, expansion, and adaptation; in some cases, the same source was used by different composers to create multiple Imitation Masses. We use time series and high-dimensional data techniques to analyze these compositions' structural and stylistic characteristics. In particular, we examine measures of internal homogeneity, and how they can be used to characterize individual pieces -- and to reveal commonalities, connections, or dissimilarities between different pieces.