Towards a systematic exploration of motif development in Arab-Andalusian Music

Authors: Oriol Colomé i Font & Satyajeet Prabhu
Affiliation: SMC 2023-24. Universitat Pompeu Fabra.

Overview

This repository contains the original code and analysis for exploring motif development in ṭab' Iraq-al-ayam, as described in our research paper. The analysis focuses on identifying and tracking musical motifs across different pieces in the Arab-Andalusian tradition.

Project Structure

• scores/: Contains MusicXML files of the analyzed pieces
  • Includes various forms: Btayhi, Quddam, and Bassit in Iraq-Ajam
  • Color-annotated scores showing identified motifs
• plots/: Generated visualizations of motif analysis
• paper/: Research paper and related materials
• notebook.ipynb: Main analysis notebook

Setup Instructions

Basic Setup

1. Clone this repository:

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/arab-andal-motif-dev.git
cd arab-andal-motif-dev

2. Create and activate a virtual environment (recommended):

# Using venv (Python 3.8 or higher recommended)
python -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate  # On Windows: venv\Scripts\activate

3. Install all dependencies:

# Install all required packages
pip install -r requirements.txt

Development Setup

For development work, additional tools are automatically configured for code quality:

1. Install pre-commit hooks:

pre-commit install

2. The following quality checks will run automatically on commit:

   • Code formatting (black)
   • Import sorting (isort)
   • Linting (flake8)
   • Type checking (mypy)
   • Basic file checks (trailing whitespace, YAML validity)

3. Run quality checks manually:

# Run all pre-commit hooks
pre-commit run --all-files

# Run tests with coverage
pytest tests/ --cov=src/ --cov-report=term-missing

# Format code
black src tests examples

Configuration Files

• requirements.txt: Python package dependencies
• setup.cfg: Configuration for pytest, flake8, mypy, and other tools
• .pre-commit-config.yaml: Pre-commit hooks configuration
• .github/workflows/tests.yml: CI pipeline configuration

IDE Integration

For the best development experience:

1. Configure your IDE to use the project's virtual environment
2. Enable format-on-save with black (line length: 88)
3. Enable import sorting with isort
4. Enable flake8 linting
5. Enable mypy type checking

Usage

1. Open notebook.ipynb in Jupyter Notebook or JupyterLab
2. The notebook is structured to analyze MusicXML scores from the scores folder
3. Generated plots will be saved to the plots folder
4. Color-annotated scores can be viewed using Musescore or similar music score editors

Methodology

The analysis pipeline includes:

• Score parsing using music21
• Motif identification through pattern matching
• Visualization of motif development
• Color annotation of identified patterns

Results

The plots and annotated scores demonstrate the systematic development of motifs across different pieces in the ṭab' Iraq-al-ayam tradition. Refer to the research paper for detailed interpretation of results.

Example Visualization

Below is an example of motif analysis in Quddam Iraq-Ajam Lasamir:

This visualization shows the identified motifs and their development throughout the piece.

Contact

For questions or collaborations, please contact:

• Oriol Colomé i Font: [email protected]
• Satyajeet Prabhu: [email protected]

License

This project is licensed under the terms included in the LICENSE file.