Computational Methods for the Analysis and Generation of Musical Rhythm Timelines

Abstract

Computational methods for the analysis and generation of rhythm timelines are described. Mathematical measures of rhythm preference are compared. Several methods for representing rhythm, and for measuring rhythm similarity, are reviewed. Tools from bioinformatics are used to perform phylogenetic analyses of families of rhythms that are common in African and Afro-American music. Several computational open problems related to the problems mentioned above as well as the "reconstruction" of "ancestral" rhythms are outlined.