"Towards Computer-Automated Harmonic Analysis of Tonal Music"
Nicholas Goffee 2002
Abstract
Harmonic analysis involves labeling each chord of a piece with a Roman numeral that indicates its function within the local key which the listener perceives at the moment when it is heard and its function within the piece as a whole. It is an interesting problem for computerized study because it is neither completely intractable nor particularly trivial. To date, very few programs have been developed to automatically perform harmonic analysis and none of them have been successful enough to be considered more than an experiment. This thesis describes the correspondence of context free grammars and hierarchical theories of music. Various computer programs which perform limited harmonic analysis are examined. The author presents his own creation, CLIFMA (Common Lisp Framework for Music Analysis) which labels chords found in tonal music with the correct label of root and quality.