Representing temporal musical objects and reasoning in the MusES system

Abstract

We describe a representation framework for temporal objects and reasoning in the MusES system. The framework is claimed to be use‐neutral within the context of tonal music. It is based on the use of an object‐oriented programming language, Smalltalk, and makes full use of two main representation mechanisms: class inheritance and delegation. We describe the kernel of the representation framework and explain the main design choices. We show how the kernel can be used and extended to represent important temporal concepts related to tonal music. The framework is validated by the realization of two substantial applications: an automatic analyzer for chord sequences, and a simulator of jazz improvisations.