Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology IDMT
Music catalogs and thematic indexes are currently mostly searched via text-based queries referencing title, composer, or other metadata. MusicDNA aims to bridge the gap between written scores and audio recordings and to make access to music catalogs easier.
Query by Humming
The goal is to find music not only through text information or traditional music incipits but also by humming the melody. This allows even users who cannot read music to find a piece. An incipit is the musical beginning of a work, meaning the first notes or the characteristic melodic sequence used to identify a composition.
Automatic Conversion of Audio into Incipits
Audio recordings will be automatically converted into standardized incipits in Plaine & Easie Code, so that works without written notation can also be included in searches. This allows not only the identification of individual pieces but also the discovery of similar motifs in other works, creating new opportunities for research.
Making Music Catalogs More Accessible
In the long term, a web platform is planned that will function as a kind of “Shazam for music catalogs,” making music more accessible and supporting research on music catalogs and thematic indexes.
Responsibilities of Fraunhofer IDMT
Fraunhofer IDMT supports the MusicDNA project with its long-standing expertise in automatic music analysis, transcription, and query-by-humming – the search for a musical piece by humming or singing its melody.