Fuzzy Interpretation of Music

The modeling of the behavior of human process operators using fuzzy methods is well established in technical applications. We investigate whether these fuzzy strategies can also be successfully applied for modeling the manner in which a musician interprets a piece of music. For L. v. Beethoven’s composition “Für Elise” we set up a base of 150 fuzzy rules that relate to features laid down explicitly or implicitly in the score, and produce situation-dependent variations of the volume and time points of the start and end of the notes. For sensitive processing of these rules advanced fuzzy-strategies are applied. The interpretation obtained is encouraging. We are aware that human artistry in interpreting music is much more sophisticated than what we can presently imitate. However, we consider it as a challenge, not an a priori fruitless question, to determine to what extent it is possible to automate the interpretation of music by fuzzy methods. At the same time, we consider the problem, due to its complexity, as being an ideal test bed for evaluating existing and developing advanced fuzzy methods.