Functional Harmonic Analysis Using Probabilistic Models

A variety of musical analysis techniques, often collectively referred to as functional harmonic analysis, represents a musical passage as a sequence of chords. The chords are expressed in terms of their function (e.g., dominant or tonic), often written with corresponding Roman numerals like V or I. Each chord is analyzed in the context of a key, which might modulate over time. This article focuses on the study of algorithms for this type of analysis. An obvious application of algorithmic harmonic analysis would be locating musical examples in a database matching a particular harmonic query, for example, "What are the earliest examples of the use of German augmented sixth chords or Neapolitan chords?" "Which Beatles songs have deceptive cadences?" "Where can I buy the piece I heard on the radio with the harmonic progression I vi IV V I repeated many times?" It is likely that such applications will be most useful to musicologists, because the mere formulation of such queries requires a more sophisticated understanding of harmony than would be expected of an average music enthusiast.