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piece would be more complete, opening a number
of new scenarios that will be discussed later.
A directly related aspect is represented by
music digitalization, in its most comprehensive
meaning: not only performances, but also scores,
graphic material, and related physical objects. We
know that digital information is not intrinsically
eternal (see Rothenberg, 1995 for a throughout
discussion about the longevity of digital in-
formation), however—thanks to digitalization
campaigns—documents can be preserved from
the wearing out due to time and physical phe-
nomena. After digitalization process, storage and
networking technologies allow the preservation,
the transmission, and the worldwide diffusion
of music.
As regards information and communication
technology, the state of the art of music produc-
tion and reproduction by computer-based systems
is noticeably advanced. But what about
music
description
?
Before jumping into an in-depth discussion
of the matter, let us claim the relevance of com-
puter-based music description. In our opinion,
the audience of potential recipients is very wide:
music producers (publishers, editors, composers,
major, and indie record labels, and multimedia
entertainment industries), music consumers
(both educated listeners and keens), and finally
researchers (analysts, musicologists, etc.) Each of
the aforementioned actors faces the problem of
music description from a different point of view,
and expects an answer to the actor's requirements
and demands.
Needless to say, the locution
music description
can embrace a number of different meanings,
and understanding its exact sense is the first key
problem. When we describe a music work, we usu-
ally list the metadata about its title, its author(s),
its performers, its instrumental ensemble, and so
on; but we could also want to catch the symbols
that compose the piece, or give a description of
physical objects related to music itself and to music
performance; finally, also audio/video recordings
Nowadays, music is considered an important
matter in information and communication technol-
ogy. Production, reproduction and representation
of music by computer are different facets of the
same problem: all these terms should be taken
into account for a comprehensive description of
music. In fact, if we want to provide an accurate
and detailed description of a music piece, we
cannot consider only its score. On the contrary,
our approach requires a deep knowledge about
the processes that bring to the final result, includ-
ing compositional ideas, music structures and
relationships, notated signs, sound generation,
recording and reproduction.
Today it is possible to produce music and
sound also by computer. In this context, the term
production
can mean generation, composition, but
also transformation and manipulation of existent
audio material. Computer based production is not
only allowed, but even made easier and richer as
regards expressive possibilities. We can cite the
examples of computer aided composition, nota-
tion and editing software, digital instruments and
effects, and so on.
Not only music production, but also
music
reproduction
has gained benefit from digital
knowledge and techniques. As regards digital
music availability for its consumers, informa-
tion technology has recently reached good
results: let us cite portable and wearable audio
devices or the phenomenon of online music
sharing. In other words, music availability is
now achieved both in space and in time, and
music can be enjoyed both by remote and by
future recipients.
About music reproduction on digital devices,
a significant example is constituted by digital
media supports and by file formats that make
music available on computers. If we were able
to include audio information coming from one
or more media files as well as score symbolic
representation, the overall description of the music
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