Getting Closer to the Essence of Music: The Con Espressione Manifesto

TL;DR

This paper discusses the current state of Music Information Research, emphasizing the need for systems with deeper musical understanding by exploring six fundamental truths about music that are often overlooked.

Contribution

It proposes a set of challenges for future MIR research centered around six core truths about music to foster deeper understanding.

Findings

Identifies six fundamental truths about music that are crucial for MIR.

Highlights the gap between current MIR systems and human-like musical understanding.

Calls for a paradigm shift in MIR research focus.

Abstract

This text offers a personal and very subjective view on the current situation of Music Information Research (MIR). Motivated by the desire to build systems with a somewhat deeper understanding of music than the ones we currently have, I try to sketch a number of challenges for the next decade of MIR research, grouped around six simple truths about music that are probably generally agreed on, but often ignored in everyday research.