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About the book

Convolutional methods for music analysis

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During my PhD studies, I had the tremendous privilege to have been a PhD student of David Meredith and Tillman Weyde. On April 6, 2017, I publicly defended my thesis at Aalborg University. I was very honoured to have Cumhur Erkut (Chairman), José Manuel Iñesta Quereda and Emilia Gómez as members of the PhD Committee, and Martin Kraus as moderator. The following are excerpts from the committee's assessment, which were read aloud by Cumhur Erkut:

"The research reported in the present manuscript is highly original and tackles pertinent issues in computational music analysis. It is expected that the developed techniques, obtained results, and lessons learned will advance the development of sound and music computing as a field, specifically in computational music analysis and music information retrieval. While there are voluminous previous accounts on computational music analysis, the manuscript stands out in its systematic approach, clarity, practicality, framing, and applicability...The presentation of the dissertation is excellent. The language is fluent and correct, and proceeds logically. The written expression complies with the conventions of academic writing. The tables and figures are informative and the overall layout is generally clear. Especially Tables 1 and 2, which place each publication's techniques, algorithms, methods, applications, and contribution to the 1- or 2-dimensional analysis in computational music analysis is of great clarity... Main contributions of the thesis: Systematic investigation of the use of wavelets for computational music analysis, expansion of the method to audio analysis, and generalization as convolutional analysis...The oral presentation was of excellent quality, providing clarification, and in most cases, clear answers to the issues we have previously indicated as weaknesses in our preliminary assessment. We have particularly liked the historical motivation, the context, and the formalization of the research problem. Subsequently, the candidate showed excellent command and ability to conduct a scientific discussion. She has also elaborated the choices available in the research work, and justified them. We have positively evaluated her ability to disseminate research outcomes in an effective way..."

Picture taken on April 6, 2017 at Aalborg University. From left to right: Cumhur Erkut, Emilia Gómez, Tillman Weyde, Gissel Velarde, David Meredith and José Manuel Iñesta Quereda.