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Automatic Thematic Extractor

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Abstract

We have created a system that identifies musical “keywords” or themes. The system searches for all patterns composed of melodic (intervallic for our purposes) repetition in a piece. This process generally uncovers a large number of patterns, many of which are either uninteresting or only superficially important. Filters reduce the number or prevalence, or both, of such patterns. Patterns are then rated according to perceptually significant characteristics. The top-ranked patterns correspond to important thematic or motivic musical content, as has been verified by comparisons with published musical thematic catalogs. The system operates robustly across a broad range of styles, and relies on no meta-data on its input, allowing it to independently and efficiently catalog multimedia data.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Dept., University of Michigan, 1101 Beal Ave., Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA

    Colin Meek & William P. Birmingham

Authors
  1. Colin Meek
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  2. William P. Birmingham
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Correspondence to Colin Meek.

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Meek, C., Birmingham, W.P. Automatic Thematic Extractor. Journal of Intelligent Information Systems 21, 9–33 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1023549700206

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1023549700206

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