University of Music FRANZ LISZT Weimar

Aligning musical data – matching corresponding events across different representations of the same music – is central to Music Information Retrieval and Digital Musicology. Datasets span graphical representations (images, scans), logical encodings (scores, MIDI) and physical recordings (audio, video, sensor data), each imposing its own coordinate system for musical time. Integrating them requires costly alignment, but results are typically stored in ad hoc formats that are poorly documented and difficult to share and reuse. To address this, we present TimeToAlign!, a cross‑domain model for musical timelines and their alignments that organises time‑related data into continuous and discrete variants across three temporal domains – graphical, logical and physical – connected by typed conversion maps and explicit match claims. In addition to describing the model, we demonstrate it through five concrete use cases of increasing complexity: (1) aligning a historical piano roll with a digital score, (2) modelling flow control in a school song arrangement, (3) transferring annotations between graphical analyses, (4) propagating harmonic labels across hundreds of multimodal timelines of a Beethoven string quartet and (5) encoding the conceptual and temporal relationships in the genesis of a rock song. The model is implemented as timetoalign, an open‑source Python library with typed timelines, loaders for common formats (such as audio formats, MusicXML or CSV) and conversion maps. Runnable tutorial and how‑to notebooks, a documentation homepage and a collection of real‑world data from diverse repertoires accompany the library.

The purpose of this section is to promote critical and renewing thinking on the hot topics of the current agenda of ethnomusicology, musicology, popular music studies and related disciplines.In this issue, an assertive and provocative idea proposed by the editor is commented on

Many pieces from the canon of Western classical music have been recorded by a variety of performers, often representing a wide spectrum of performance styles. Various factors, such as playing technique, stylistics, or instrumentation, influence the perceived musical similarity – or dissimilarity – between various recordings of one composition. The present study investigated the perceived dissimilarities of two melody sequences, using Bach's second Brandenburg Concerto as an example. The collected data were analyzed using weighted multidimensional scaling (INDSCAL), with which the dissimilarities of the pairwise tested melody sequences were represented as distances between spatial coordinates. In addition, acoustic features were extracted from the melody sequences to interpret the resulting INDSCAL dimensions. The results showed that participants shared the same perceptual space in terms of similarity assessment and were implicitly guided in their judgment by the respective instrumentation and musical design. Furthermore, melody sequences were perceived as more similar when they shared the same spectral properties. The present work extends the current state of research regarding the similarity assessment of different musical interpretations, with a specific consideration of Romantic and historically informed performance practices. Furthermore, this study provides the basis for further studies on the perceived similarity of cover versions of popular music, studio vs. live recordings, or electric vs. acoustic recordings and their evaluation. Future research should therefore consider a larger number and variety of stimuli and be performed under more controlled acoustic conditions.

When listening to music, people are able to separate the various parts or streams that the respective piece is made of, depending on their musical experience and aural training. Specific musical expertise affects these analytical listening skills, but different studies have shown that differences between experts and amateurs are smaller than often anticipated and depend heavily on the adequacy of the task for amateurs. The present replication study of Kopiez and Platz (2009) has investigated in a convenience sample ( N = 97) whether a presumably obvious clash of keys between solo and accompaniment can be detected. In an incomplete study design, participants listened to two pieces of music (jazz and classical) with solos each played by one of two instruments (trumpet and saxophone) in either a clashing or fitting condition. Participants' musical training and perceptual abilities showed a medium correlation with the harmoniousness ratings difference between the clashing and fitting stimuli. Overall, the clashing version of the classical piece was rated as less harmonious than the jazz piece. These results are in line with similar research and raise questions concerning the appropriate research method to investigate the perception of participants with various degrees of expertise.

To practise effectively, musicians must engage in self-regulated learning (SRL) through a cyclical process of planning, execution, and reflection. The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a new questionnaire that measures SRL in the context of music practice. We generated an item pool by adapting items from existing scales and revising them based on feedback from an expert panel. This pool was administered to 290 musicians, randomly split into Subsamples A and B. Exploratory structural equation modelling (ESEM) was carried out on Subsample A to create the final Self-Regulated Learning in Music Practice Self-Report Scale (SRL-MP-SRS), which consisted of 27 items distributed across five subscales. ESEM of the final model on Subsample B demonstrated a good fit. Internal consistency was acceptable for both the global scale and each of the subscales. The SRL-MP-SRS scores correlated positively with self-efficacy and deliberate practice, while professional musicians scored higher on the SRL-MP-SRS than students. The SRL-MP-SRS provides a valid and reliable way to measure musicians’ self-regulated practice that can be utilised with large samples, although further studies are needed to investigate its validity and limitations further.

Resumo Partindo do lugar especial ocupado pelos artefatos na composição dos grupos sociais rionegrinos e da presença massiva de coleções oriundas dessa região nos mais diversos museus etnográficos do mundo, o artigo apresenta múltiplas experiências de curadoria colaborativa que envolveram tais coleções. O texto inicia discutindo a diferença constituinte entre os regimes de objetos ocidentais e amazônicos/rionegrinos, para, em seguida, explorar metodologias curatoriais que buscaram uma pluralização epistêmica nas práticas dos museus etnográficos. Como resultado, o trabalho destaca as práticas de curadoria colaborativa como fundamentais para abrir, de um lado, os museus etnográficos às populações cujos conhecimentos e práticas essas instituições se propuseram a salvaguardar e, de outro lado, os mundos vividos dessas populações, permitindo que os museus atuem como parceiros.

This essay describes selected venues where Johann Sebastian Bach worked in central Germany and examines possible connections to the vocal works he performed there within the context of Baroque festivals and sepulchral culture. These venues include the White Hall at Nienburg Castle on the Saale, the Banquet Hall at Köthen Castle, St. Jakob’s Church in Köthen, and St. Paul’s Church in Leipzig. The discussion focuses on the interdependencies between architecture and music, particularly from the perspective of spatial acoustics and theological symbolism, and provides new insights into these references, which range from random phenomenological overlaps to intentional, concrete associations.