Abstract:

Tempo variations in classical music are an important means of artistic expression. Fluctuations in tempo can be large and sudden, making applications like automated score following a challenging task. Some of the fluctuations may be predicted from (tempo annotations in) the score, but prediction based only on the score is unlikely to capture the internal coherence of a performance. On the other hand, filtering approaches to tempo prediction (like the Kalman filter) are suited to track gradual changes in tempo, but do not anticipate sudden changes.