Analyzing Harmonic Progressions with HarmIn:
the Music of Antônio Carlos Jobim
Giordano Cabral, Robert Willey
Abstract. This paper describes a tool designed for the analysis, retrieval, and visualization of harmonic progressions which aim to provide the user with valuable statistics and graphs. This output is intended to help the users to better understand the harmonic content of a music dataset, hopefully causing the emergence of interesting findings. The analysis of the music of Antônio Carlos Jobim motivated the creation of our tool, and for this reason is presented as our case study. We also describe how this tool can be integrated into an accompaniment system (RamIn), going beyond analysis into the fields of interactive music and composition.
Presented at the 11th Brazilian Symposium for Computer Music, September 1-3, São Paulo, Brazil.
Representing Antônio Carlos Jobim’s
Harmonic Progressions
Robert Willey, Giordano Cabral
Abstract. In preparation for statistical analysis of the music of Antônio Carlos Jobim, we transcribed a large number of his songs, creating a data base representing their chord progressions as well as general information regarding each song. We released this database for the scientific community with the aim of encouraging research projects on the subject. This paper describes this database in order to assist researchers interested in using it. We also present some applications we developed to illustrate its potential, and make a comparison with a similar database describing the songs by the Beatles.
Text
- Sample song from Cancioneiro volume 2's datafile, looking like a Microsoft Word file: "Chega de Saudade"
- The sample song converted to text, and transposed to C minor, ready for input into HarmIn
- example of analysis data from a group of songs before graphing: ordered transition sequences
Jobim Graphs
- 3D distribution graph
- 2D distribution graphs: all major, all major with annotations, all minor
- major: volume 1, volume 2, volume 3, volume 4, volume 5
- minor: volume 1, volume 2, volume 3, volume 4, volume 5
- all major, all minor
- famous songs in major
- song by song: colors, grays, 2D transitions, animated movie
Comparisons
- Jobim volumes 1-5 major plus all major, volumes 1-5 minor plus all minor
- Jobim's most famous and the rest of his songs
- Beatles' with Jobim's songs in major keys - circle of fifths style, x-y style
- Axé with Brazilian funk: circle, directory
In the following circle-of-fifth graphs, green lines represent transitions that are more common in the songs corresponding to the column heading labels, while red lines indicate transitions that are more common in the songs by composer or style named by the row headings. For example, comparing Jobim and the Beatles, those transitions that are more common in the Beatles are in green, those more common in Jobim are in red.
Beatles Chico
BuarqueCaetano
VelosoForró Axé Brazilian
FunkJobim circle directory circle directory circle directory circle directory circle directory circle directory Beatles circle directory circle directory circle directory circle directory circle directory Chico circle directory circle directory circle directory circle directory Caetano circle directory circle directory circle directory Forró circle directory circle directory Axé circle directory
Generated chord progression from the second paper, realized with Band in a Box
