Towards a General Computational Theory of Musical Structure
Emilios Cambouropoulos · 1998
The General Computational Theory of Musical Structure (GCTMS) is a theory that may be employed to obtain a structural description (or set of descriptions) of a musical surface. This theory is based on general cognitive and logical principles, is independent of any specific musical style or idiom, and can be applied to any musical surface. The musical work is presented to GCTMS as a sequence of discrete symbolically represented events (e.g. notes) without higher-level structural elements (e.g. articulation marks, timesignature etc.)- although such information may be used to guide the analytic process. The aim of the application of the theory is to reach a structural description of the musical work that may be considered as 'plausible' or 'permissible' by a human music analyst. As styledependent knowledge is not embodied in the general theory, highly sophisticated analyses (similar to those an expert analyst may provide) are not expected. The theory gives, however, higher rating to descriptions that may be considered more reasonable or acceptable by human analysts and lower to descriptions that are less plausible.