A computational analysis on the relationship between melodic originality and thematic fame in classical music from the Romantic period

TL;DR

This study introduces a new method for measuring melodic originality and applies it to Romantic period music to explore its correlation with thematic fame.

Contribution

It proposes a novel formula for melodic originality and analyzes its relationship with thematic fame in a large Romantic music dataset.

Findings

Melodic originality varies across Romantic compositions.

Higher originality correlates with increased thematic fame.

The new formula effectively quantifies melodic originality.

Abstract

In this work, the researcher presents a novel approach to calculating melodic originality based on the research by Simonton (1994). This novel formula is then applied to a dataset of 428 classical music pieces from the Romantic period to analyze the relationship between melodic originality and thematic fame.