Melodic Modeling: A Comparison of Scale Degree and Interval
Yipeng Li · 2006
Statistical models of Western melody were created as inspired by traditional music-theoretical conceptions. One model was based on pitch interval measurements; a second model was based on scale-degree successions. Both models distinguished between major and minor scale contexts. Both models were used to calculate the aggregate probability for over 8,000 test melodies. Paired results for both models showed that the scale-degree succession model produced lower aggregate probabilities than the interval model for vast majority of test melodies. A de novo Markov model was also created using a scale-degree representation. This Markov model was shown to perform better than either of the two expert-inspired models. 1