How do we mathematically represent the layers of polyphonic music?
Explore the fundamental tension in musical notation. This lecture from MIT OpenCourseWare examines the two primary methods used to represent polyphonic music: the partwise approach and the timewise approach.
In this session of the Spring 2023 course, Computational Music Theory and Analysis, instructor Michael Scott Asato Cuthbert delves into the mechanics of musical representation. While the discussion touches on musical notation broadly, it focuses specifically on Classical Western Music Notation (CWMN).
The video compares two distinct frameworks for organizing polyphonic structures: partwise representations, which focus on individual musical lines, and timewise representations, which focus on the progression of time. Understanding these two perspectives is essential for the computational analysis of complex musical textures.
Source: Video 7d: Partwise vs. Timewise Polyphonic Representations
