Using Rhythmic Notation and Musical Analysis on Animal Communication: A Case Study on Sperm Whales

TL;DR

This paper explores using Western music notation to analyze sperm whale communication, comparing it to human music and random rhythms.

Contribution

The study introduces a novel approach to analyzing animal communication using rhythmic musical notation and analysis techniques.

Findings

Transcriptions of sperm whale codas showed rhythmic statistics similar to human music samples.

Two modes of musical analysis—tempo and motivic variation—were demonstrated on whale codas.

The study highlights the need for streamlined tools to apply these methods on a larger scale.

Abstract

Western music notation, a language of symbols representing various parameters in music, can be used to describe and analyze existing musical performances. Rhythmic elements such as periodicity and categorical rhythm have been studied in sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) codas, which are short click sequences produced in social interaction. As a case study in the applicability of music notation for animal communication, we transcribed human music, randomly generated rhythms, and sperm whale codas in Western music notation. Music notation categorizes sound elements into a metric hierarchy based on the perception of an isochronous beat in nonisochronous rhythms, a difficult comparison when we cannot know the rhythm perception of nonhuman animals. In accuracy and complexity, the transcriptions of codas showed similar statistics to the human rhythm samples. We demonstrated two modes of musical analysis on the transcriptions of sperm whale codas: tempo variation and motivic variation, and explored how they could be applied in ways that mitigate the subjective nature of interpreting beats. Our sample size was small, and our tools were time‐consuming, so a streamlined approach is needed to fully test the applicability of these tools on a large scale.

Western music notation is a language of symbols which efficiently communicates common elements in music, some of which have been studied in sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) communication. As a case study in using rhythmic notation on animal vocalizations, we transcribed human music, randomly generated rhythms, and sperm whale codas in Western music notation. This required interpreting a beat in each sample and testing the accuracy of our interpretation.

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