Symbolic and Structural Representation of Melodic Expression

Abstract A method for expressive melody synthesis is presented seeking to capture the structural and prosodic (stress, direction, and grouping) elements of musical interpretation. The interpretation of melody is represented through a hierarchical structural decomposition and a note-level prosodic annotation. An audio performance of the melody is constructed using the time-evolving frequency and intensity functions. A method is presented that transforms the expressive annotation into the frequency and intensity functions, thus giving the audio performance. In this framework, the problem of expressive rendering is cast as an estimation of structural decomposition and the prosodic annotation. Examples are presented on a dataset of around 50 folk-like melodies, realized both from hand-marked and estimated annotations.