Analyzing Pitch Content in Traditional Ghanaian Seperewa Songs

TL;DR

This paper analyzes pitch content in traditional Ghanaian seperewa songs using field recordings, vocal isolation, and statistical modeling, revealing microtonal deviations and highlighting challenges in applying Western MIR tools to non-Western music.

Contribution

It introduces a novel quantitative approach to studying pitch in Ghanaian traditional music, combining vocal isolation and GMM scale approximation.

Findings

Vocal tracks show higher microtonal deviations from equal temperament.

Challenges exist in applying Western MIR tools to non-Western music.

The study provides new insights into pitch variation in Sub-Saharan African music.

Abstract

This study examines the pitch content in traditional Ghanaian seperewa (Akan harp-lute) songs, utilizing a unique dataset from field recordings of the mid-twentieth century. We selected 71 songs and used Demucs to isolate vocals from instrumental tracks. We then retrieved the F0 content from these isolated tacks and applied Gaussian Mixture Models (GMM) to approximate musical scales. Comparative F0 analysis between vocals and seperewa revealed higher microtonal deviations from equal temperament in vocal tracks. We also note challenges in using MIR tools for musical scale approximation in non-Western music. Our research contributes to the quantitative study of pitch in traditional music of Sub-Saharan Africa.