| Abstract: | AbstractIn the second half of the twentieth century, ethnomusicologists assembled a collection of more than 7000 field recordings of Dutch ballads. Collectively known as Onder de groene linde, these recordings are preserved at the Meertens Institute in Amsterdam. Because of its size, composition and quality of metadata, Onder de groene linde is a unique resource for studying the musical properties of folksongs. For such study, it would be essential to search and order the songs automatically, not just using the metadata, but especially their musical content. It is the aim of the WITCHCRAFT project to design and implement methods for processing the musical content of the songs. Such a project involves two disciplines, musicology and computer science, that have different goals and methodologies. Such differences can lead to unproductive tensions, but can also be exploited in order to attain new insights that could not have been attained by the separate disciplines. |
