A systematic comparison of different European folk music traditions using self-organizing maps

Abstract

The relations of six European musical cultures were investigated using self-organizing mapping of the melody contours. The high number of contour types characterizing more than 2 cultures simultaneously led to the supposition of a hypothetical common musical language, and the corresponding contour types were determined using a self-organizing map, being able to “understand” the six cultures in parallel. The analysis showed that significant parts of the common language are represented in the six national cultures, and it exists practically completely in Hungarian and Slovak folk music. The mapping of the melody sections and the contour types of the common language to a multidimensional “melody space” resulted in a clear musical description of the contacts, thus, the hypothesis of an archaic common musical tradition in Europe seems to be worth considering.

Acknowledgment

The author is grateful to Dr Olga Szalay for the inspiration and the valuable information about the construction of the data bases.