Music 824: Computer Applications in Music Research
Ohio State University
School of Music


Humdrum Exercise #17


For this exercise you will need to know the following new commands:

UNIX Commands Humdrum Commands
scramble
recode
   

Change directories to /var/opt/Humdrum/Scores and answer the following questions. For each question, keep a record of both the answer, and the command(s) used to find your answer.

  1. It is commonly thought that melodies are organized with a preference for small melodic intervals (the so-called "pitch-proximity principal"). It is possible that small intervals arise simply because of limitations of range. Most pitches occur in the central part of an instrument's or voice's range, so even for random melodies most intervals ought to be small. Using the Humdrum scramble command compare the average interval size for an actual melody with the average interval size when the order of notes for the melody has been randomly rearranged. (For this exercise use the French patriotic song Allons enfants de la patrie [france01.krn]).
    COMMAND(S):
    ANSWER:
  2. It is commonly thought that large intervals tend to be followed by smaller intervals. If small intervals are already very common, wouldn't we expect to see many small intervals following large intervals by chance? For this question, use the french08.krn folksong and assume that a "large" interval is 5 semitones or larger.
    COMMAND(S):
    ANSWER:
  3. Does Bach tend to avoid V-IV progressions in his chorale harmonizations?
    COMMAND(S):
    ANSWER:
  4. In Bach's the two-part Invention No. 11, does he use more or fewer augmented elevenths harmonic intervals than would be expected by chance?
    COMMAND(S):
    ANSWER:

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This document is available at http://csml.som.ohio-state.edu/Music824/Exercises/exercise17.html