Meter and Periodicity in Musical Performance

This paper presents a psychoacoustically based method of data reduction motivated by the desire to analyze the rhythm of musical performances. The resulting information is then analyzed by the " Periodicity Transform " (which is based on a projection onto " periodic subspaces ") to locate perio-dicities in the resulting data. These periodicities represent the rhythm at several levels, including the " pulse " , the " measure " , and larger structures such as musical " phrases. " The implications (and limitations) of such automated grouping of rhythmic features is discussed. The method is applied to a number of musical examples, its output is compared to that of the Fourier Transform, and both are compared to a more traditional " musical " analysis of the rhythm. Unlike many methods of rhythm analysis, the techniques can be applied directly to the digitized performance (i.e., a sound-file) and do not require a musical score or a MIDI transcription. Several examples are presented that highlight both the strengths and weaknesses of the approach.