Hildegard

A Music Analysis System

So what is Hildegard?

Hildegard is a music analysis system written in Common Lisp. It would be useful for students, composers, or anyone interested in music theory and analysis. Hildegard is also an attempt to make computers able to "appreciate" music, to some extent.

OK, what does the current version do?

Hildegard currently reads music in the ABC notation format and outputs the discrepencies between that music and a defined set of rules. The only rules currently implemented are those of First-Species counterpoint as described in Fux's Gradus ad Parnassum and Jepperson's Counterpoint. More rulesets are on the way; I'm currently working on the rest of Fux/Jepperson and dodecaphonic tone-row systems as described by Schenker. With enough help, we could add all sorts of styles.

That's somewhat disappointing. What are your plans for Hildegard's future?

Eventually, I hope to make Hildegard "smart" enough to read music and determine which stylistic rules best match that piece. I also have plans to extend input support to formats other than ABC (particularly Lilypond and MusiTeX), and to write a graphical front-end.

What will it do for me?

Well, several things:

If you are a music student, Hildegard can help you check your composition exercises.
If you are a musicologist, Hildegard can help you analyze large pieces of music according to an extensible ruleset.
If you are an AI researcher, Hildegard can be incorporated into a larger "musical computer" system.

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