Sopele music dataset

Area of Science:

• Ethnomusicology
• Digital Musicology
• Acoustics

Background:

• The sopela is a traditional Croatian aerophone from Istria, played in pairs (small and great).
• Existing research lacks comprehensive digital datasets for this unique instrument.

Purpose of the Study:

• To create a detailed dataset of sopela audio recordings and associated musical notation.
• To facilitate the development and evaluation of automatic music transcription (AMT) systems for traditional Croatian music.

Main Methods:

• Recording all distinct tones and polyphonic combinations of both small and great sopele in WAV format.
• Creating music sheets in PDF format using Istrian scale notation for traditional melodies.
• Utilizing the dataset for developing, training, and testing an AMT solution.

Main Results:

• A comprehensive dataset comprising audio files (WAV) and corresponding musical scores (PDF) for the sopela.
• Successful application of the data in building and validating an automatic music transcription system.
• Demonstration of the feasibility of digitizing and transcribing traditional Istrian music.

Conclusions:

• The presented dataset provides a valuable resource for ethnomusicological research and computational musicology.
• The developed AMT solution shows promise for the preservation and accessibility of traditional sopela music.
• This work contributes to the digital archiving and analysis of unique cultural musical heritage.