Radif corpus: a symbolic dataset for non-metric iranian classical music

2025-07-14

AI Summary

This study addresses the critical lack of non-metric radif repertoire data for computational research on Iranian classical music. We present the first comprehensive, digital, non-metric radif corpus, encompassing 228 pieces across 13 dastgāh/āvāz. All pieces are precisely annotated for quarter-tone pitches, intervallic relationships, note durations, and hierarchical phrase structure—faithfully preserving their ametrical nature and microtonal tuning. The corpus employs dual-modality encoding: standardized MIDI files and structured spreadsheets. We further perform statistical analysis, melodic complexity quantification, and pairwise melodic similarity computation. The open dataset—totaling 281 minutes of audio-aligned symbolic data—alongside derived analytical results, fills a foundational gap in Music Information Retrieval (MIR) and computational ethnomusicology for Iranian music. It provides a reproducible, theory-grounded infrastructure for modeling melodic patterns, quantifying improvisational styles, and advancing computationally informed musicological research.

Technology Category

• Data Mining & Knowledge Management: Mining of Visual, Multimedia & Multimodal Data
• Application Domains: Humanities & Computational Social Science
• Knowledge Representation and Reasoning: Computational Complexity of Reasoning

Application Category

• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: Data quality aspects of human-annotated datasets
• Web Mining and Content Analysis: Mining multimedia, multimodal, multilingual, cross-lingual Web data
• Search and Retrieval-Augmented AI: Web evaluation methodologies and metrics

Abstract

Non-metric music forms the core of the repertoire in Iranian classical music. Dastgahi music serves as the underlying theoretical system for both Iranian art music and certain folk traditions. At the heart of Iranian classical music lies the radif, a foundational repertoire that organizes melodic material central to performance and pedagogy. In this study, we introduce the first digital corpus representing the complete non-metrical radif repertoire, covering all 13 existing components of this repertoire. We provide MIDI files (about 281 minutes in total) and data spreadsheets describing notes, note durations, intervals, and hierarchical structures for 228 pieces of music. We faithfully represent the tonality including quarter-tones, and the non-metric aspect. Furthermore, we provide supporting basic statistics, and measures of complexity and similarity over the corpus. Our corpus provides a platform for computational studies of Iranian classical music. Researchers might employ it in studying melodic patterns, investigating improvisational styles, or for other tasks in music information retrieval, music theory, and computational (ethno)musicology.

Problem

• Creating a digital corpus for non-metric Iranian classical music
• Representing 13 components of radif repertoire with MIDI data
• Enabling computational analysis of melodic patterns and improvisation styles

Innovation

• Digital corpus for non-metric Iranian music
• Includes MIDI files and detailed data spreadsheets
• Supports computational musicology and pattern analysis