The Center for Computer Assisted Research in the Humanities (CCARH), located in the Braun Music Center, Stanford University, is concerned with the development of data resources and software applications for music research and allied areas of humanities study.
Its address is:
Braun #129
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-3076
tel. (650) 725-9240
fax (650) 725-9290
Web: http://www.ccarh.org/
CCARH staffs a two-quarter graduate course sequence, cross-listed with Computer Science:
| Music 253 | Introduction to Musical Information | http://www.ccarh.org/courses/253/ |
| Music 254 | Seminar in Music Representation | http://www.ccarh.org/courses/254/ |
This course sequence is team-taught by Eleanor Selfridge-Field and Walter B. Hewlett. The current teaching assistant is Craig Sapp.
CCARH maintains a lab for applications in music notation, analysis, and sound sequencing. It also maintains some CD-ROM titles related to music research. See http://www.ccarh.org/software/ and http://www.ccarh.org/lab/ for more information.
CCARH supports a variety of research projects in data development, access, and query, such as Musedata and Themefinder.
Publications and Performing Materials:
The Musical Acoustics Research Library (MARL) is a collection of independent archives or libraries assembled by distinguished groups or individuals in the field of musical acoustics research. MARL is directed by representatives of each member collection, in conjunction with the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) at Stanford University, which maintains the contents of each library. Currently, MARL is comprised of the Catgut Acoustical Society Library, the Arthur H. Benade Archive, the John Backus Archive, and the John W. Coltman Archive.
Background and History:
The Musical Acoustics Research Library (MARL) has its origin in the vast acoustics research collection of the Catgut Acoustical Society (CAS). These files were assembled over many years by CAS and housed in the home of its founder Carleen M. Hutchins. In the late 1980s, CAS began an effort to establish an appropriate long-term residence for the collection, such that it could serve as a valuable reference source for the musical acoustics community at large. In 1992, the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) at Stanford University was selected as the repository for this library.
In conjunction with the establishment of the Catgut Acoustical Society Library, CCRMA and CAS encouraged the idea of having the personal archives of Arthur Benade and John Backus at the same site. Both were world leaders in the study of wind instrument acoustics. The personal files of John Backus were acquired in 1995. An agreement for the establishment of the Arthur H. Benade Archive at CCRMA was reached in 1997. In autumn 1996, representatives of CAS and CCRMA, together with Virginia Benade, established the Musical Acoustics Research Library at CCRMA in order to provide a single point of reference for the various collections. The most recent addition to MARL, the John W. Coltman Archive, was founded in April 1998. The archives of three of the most prominent wind instrument acousticians of our time, together with the extensive string instrument resources of the Catgut Acoustical Society Library, position MARL as a primary musical acoustics reference source in the world.
Organizational activities of MARL are directed by Gary P. Scavone, with faculty representation by Max V. Mathews and Chris Chafe, the director of CCRMA. MARL is a collective and each member/group representative is encouraged to take part in policy decisions. CCRMA, as an equal partner in MARL, is committed to helping establish the library as an important resource of musical acoustics knowledge for the entire global acoustics research community. A World Wide Web (WWW) site has been created for MARL, which will serve as the primary means for disseminating information to the public about the various collections.
Activities:
The primary ongoing activities of MARL are centered on the development of a uniform databasing system to record the sub-collection catalogue information, as well as the creation of World Wide Web (WWW) pages for the dissemination of the library contents to the global musical acoustics community. The MARL WWW pages currently provide Internet access to overviews of the materials available at CCRMA. When requests for particular documents are received, those documents are being scanned and converted to Portable Document Format (PDF) files using Adobe Capture software and subsequently linked to appropriate locations within the MARL WWW pages. The files at CCRMA are also available for on-site perusal by appointment.
MARL activity is coordinated at CCRMA by Gary P. Scavone and organizational decisions are made by agreement among the representatives of each member collection. Activities are ongoing for the addition of new collections to MARL.
The Web is extremely attractive as a basis for supplementary educational infrastructure. Advantages of Web-based tutorials include:
Over the past several years, a knowledge web for digital signal processing in music applications has been under development:
http://ccrma.stanford.edu/~jos/pubs.htmlBased on our experience to date, such online knowledge webs seem to be best suited for (1) online reference and (2) self-paced study via exploration. The core material is contained in the following three online books:
All documents are available in HTML form, generated from LATEX source by latex2html. The HTML documents are extensively interlinked (automatically) based on a large dictionary created by a combination of key-word/key-phrase indexing techniques. The signal-processing knowledge web is continually being updated in the course of its ongoing use in teaching at CCRMA, and in response to valuable feedback from all over the world.
| © Copyright 2005 CCRMA, Stanford University. All rights reserved. |