What Motivates a Musical Query
Eleanor Selfridge-Field · 2000
this article. The quantity of data is much less interesting than the spread of repertories, the nature of the searches implemented, and the potential uses for retrieved data in new contexts. Briefly, Themefia#er incorporates incipits from several highly diverse repertories, including orchestral and chamber music (chiefly from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries), polyphonic vocal music (chiefly from the sixteenth century), and folk music (chiefly from central Europe and from China). This breadth spans multiple notational, tonal, and mensural traditions. Therefore, although the brevity of incipits simplifies some needs, the range of repertories seems to complicate others