[Project] Tonality and melody lines in MusicNet

[Yuanqi-Hong]

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Pitch

Summary

A chart of the most popular tonality(tonalities) and a chart of melody trends of the MusicNet compositions.

Data source: MusicNet

Details

Possible headline(s):

Data set(s): MusicNet

Code repository: https://github.com/Yuanqi-Hong/data-studio/tree/master/code/01-MusicNet

Possible problems/fears/questions: I'm not sure about how to make filters and stuff on my melody line data viz graph.

Work so far

I made some simple, ugly bar charts with MusicNet's metadata.

Checklist

This checklist must be completed before you submit your draft.

• [ ] I have already spent time with my data set, opening it, exploring it, etc
• [ ] I have created a "DIARY.md" file to save links and list all of the terrible, no good problems I come across
• [x] My issue issue has [Project] in the title
• [ ] My issue links to my data set(s)
• [ ] My issue links to my code repository
• [ ] My issue explains what I'd like to explore in the data set
• [ ] My issue includes images - either inspiration or what I've done so far
• [ ] I have received two comments of peer feedback on my pitch issue

[jlstro]

I like the genuine approach here and that you try to break down the music by time and tone. In my opinion, it would make sense to focus on two or three songs in the end and analyze them in detail instead of looking at all of them.

[Yuanqi-Hong]

Sadly I failed to download the entire dataset. Here is a simple bar graph from the metadata.

To make something out of the metatdata of MusicNet, I will do another simple (bar?) graph showing each composer's use of a certain tonality.

[jlstro]

I'm gonna out myself here, but I do not really know what a composition is. As I know that you have the length of each of them, maybe plot the relation between composition and length? Which composer was really really into it and made endless compositions, who was more on the short side?

[dz2383]

Could you do something with instruments /movement and time? To see if there's any relationship between them.

[Yuanqi-Hong]

Here is the updated version of the bar graph.

[playfairbot]

Hi! I'm a little robot, let's take a peek.

You need some feedback, let me summon @jessimckenzi, @kellykiki, @Palarisk for you

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[jessimckenzi]

Hi! I like the look of the final chart—the colors and the dark theme works for me (although there's something appealing about dark font on light background, because it evokes notes on the page). But, I don't really understand what to make of it. I don't understand what the MusicNet database is or why it matters that Beethoven has more compositions. Was he just a more prolific composer than the others, or was he a superior composer? This (or future charts) could use more text explaining the context for the data.

[Palarisk]

Hi, this looks great. One minor thing: In the subtitle, I would change the words "this composer" to" Beethoven" cause it's a bit annoying to let the reader do all the work.

It doesn't bother me that I don't know what MusicNet is since I was thinking that in "real life" this chart would be part of something that would explain it to me.

[kellykiki]

Hey, this looks nice; and I like the topic idea! For your horizontal axis labels, do you need for them to end where the pink-bar values end?

[sarahslo]

Is there any more information in the metadata you can use? Do you have the first and last date of the when they were writing? I look at the total numbers and I wonder, was Beethoven more prolific because he was alive longer? How much time does this represent for each composer? How many did Beethoven write each year compared to Bach and Mozart? Is there any more you can pull out of the metadata that will make me feel like I understand why the numbers are that way they are -- can you chart how many they wrote each year and at what age they started writing? There is not much for me to dig into here and it is a rich topic.

[Yuanqi-Hong]

Thanks for all the comments! I put the project into web format and will keep updating it.

The project lives here: https://yuanqi-hong.github.io/data-studio-projects/01-MusicNet/