Recognition of musical tonality from sound input

Work on the problem of computer based determination of the musical mode and tonality of a melody from sound input is presented. The study proposes a tool for determination of a time dependent tonal context vector for melodies from acoustical input. Each element of this vector, called a tonal component, indicates the extent of a specific scale usage. The system is made up of two stages: The first is involved in digital signal processing and is used to convert sound input of melodies into a sequence of musical note intervals and their associated occurrence times. The second stage uses finite state automats to match patterns of the interval sequences with pre-programmed scale patterns. The output consists of a time dependent tonal context vector whose elements are relative strengths of various tonal components regarding the melody under consideration