Andrea Poltronieri
Nicolas Lazzari
The Music Representation Ontology provides a comprehensive schema to describe the analysis of musical objects (a score, an audio track, etc.) interpreted in the context of an existing theory. Fragments of a musical object -- elements of a musical object whose temporal location is uniquely identifiable -- are described by an annotation provided by an agent, that ranges from an expert annotator to an algorithm. An annotation is either the subjective result of an analysis (e.g. the chord played in a specific section) or objective (e.g. a note in a digital score). Each annotation describes some music content (e.g. notes, chords, etc.), a musical projection, and can be composed hierarchically. The Music Representation Ontology reuses the Music Annotation Pattern ODP to implement an annotation. The generality of this ontology and its abstraction over the represented content enables the interoperability of different music annotation schemas. The module is aligned to MusicOWL, Music Notation Ontology, JAMS ontology and Music Note Ontology.
Music Representation Ontology
Polifonia Ontology Network
The relation between an annotation and the fragment it is describing.
describes fragment
A direct relationship between a music content and an annotation. Some specific content (e.g. elements of a score) might be annotated without the need of an analysis.
has annotation
The relationship that defines the type of an annotation.
has annotation type
The relationship that identifies an agent that contributed to an annotation.
has annotator
The type of an annotator (e.g. domain expert)
has annotator type
The relation that connects an atomic fragment to the corresponding music content.
has fragment
The relation between an annotation and its bserved content.
has observation
The relation that identifies a subject of interest in an annotation content.
has subject
The temporal location of a fragment.
has temporal location
Relation between an analysis and an analyst associated with it.
has analyst
The relantionship that identifies the specific music content modeled by an analysis.
involves music content
The relantionship that identifies an analysis of a specific music content.
is analysed in
The relation between a content and its annotation.
is annotation content of
A direct relationship between an annotation and its music content or analysis.
is annotated of
The relationship that defines an annotation of specific type.
is annotation type of
The relationship that identifies an annotation of an agent.
is annotator of
Relation between a type an an an annotator.
is annotator type of
Part-of relationship between two music notation entities. E.g. a chord is composed of pitchclasses.
is composed of
The relation between a fragment and the annotation it is describes.
is described by annotation
Relation between an analyst and an analysis it is involved in.
is involved in analysis
The relation that identifies the subject of interest of an annotation.
is subject of
The fragment at a temporal location.
is temporal location of
As defined by Marsden in "Music Analysis by Computer: Ontology and Epistemology", an analysis is a process that adds information to a musical piece in the sense that someone reading an analysis will gain knowledge that they did not have before. It never adds anything to a musical piece that was not implicitly in it. For example, an analysis that classifies a piece in "Sonata Form" does not simply provide a label for a piece but rather provides specific analytical evidences that justify the classification.
Analysis
An analyst is an agent that is referenced by an analysis. It can be for instance a musicologist that interprets a given theory or the author of the theory.
Analyst
An analytical reference is a musical theory, i.e. a set of assumptions and commitments that an analyst make when producing an analysis. The result of an analysis is ultimately one of the possible interpretation of a musical piece: different theories can result in the same result as well as same theories can be used to obtain different results. An example is Riemann's theory or Schenker's theory.
Analytical reference
An annotation is a temporal precise and unique observation that an agent makes when performing an analysis on a musical piece. It can either describe an entire musical content or a specific fragment of a musical content. The subject of an annotation is the projection of a specific music content.
Annotation
The type of an annotation, such as "textual" or "JAMS observation".
Annotation type
An annotator is an agent that makes an annotation. An annotator might be of a specific type, e.g. crowd or expert.
Annotator
Type of an annotator, such as crowd collected, algorithmically derived, provided by an expert etc.
Annotator type
A fragment is the atomic piece that compose the final analysis. For example, when describing harmonic progression a fragment is the instant where a chord is played. When describing forms, a fragment is a section of a piece that spans several instants.
Fragment
Music content represents a musical piece that can be analysed by means of an analytical process.
Music content
A music projection is the subject of an annotation content. E.g. a chord.
Music projection
An observation, i.e. content of an annotation, is the projection of the musical content it is describing.
Observation
The confidence of an analysis.
has confidence