Clementi corpus building

The goal is to mark phrases in the Clementi Op. 36 sonatinas, as in this PDF file.

Please use this web interface (abcDE) to enter the phrase marks. Click the cog button on the right and fill in the fields. You are the authority and the transcriber. After you set yourself up, you will need to reload the page in your browser.

I have divided the sonatinas into 27 sections. (Anything between double bar lines got its own section.)

Here are all the section files to be annotated:

11.abc 21.abc 31.abc 35.abc 44.abc 53.abc 62.abc
12.abc 22.abc 32.abc 41.abc 45.abc 54.abc 63.abc
13.abc 23.abc 33.abc 42.abc 51.abc 55.abc 64.abc
14.abc 24.abc 34.abc 43.abc 52.abc 61.abc

(The first number is the sonatina number. The second is the section number. So 24.abc has the fourth section of the second sonatina.)

To open a section file, click the globe button. It should show you a URL like this:

https://dvdrndlph.github.io/didactyl/corpora/clementi/11.abc

To select a different file, change the number. Click OK.

To mark phrases, select the last note included in the phrase, and type a period ("."). This will display a vertical bar after the note to mark the phrase.

The browser should remember your work, but to be safe (and to share your work with me), you will click the eyeball button, copy all of the displayed text, and save it in a text file. Or just paste the text in an email and send it to me. That might be easiest.

You should also mark sub-phrases (";") and motives (",").

I am primarily interested in the complete phrase markings right now, so you can ignore the other marks. But it wouldn't hurt to add the more granular markings while you are in the neighborhood. Of course, we are actually trying to identify how a piece is chunked with respect to fingering, not musicality. But one study suggests these are the same thing.

Regarding annotation guidelines, this is what we have:

The primary task is to demarcate phrases in the score. Mark the notes that end complete musical thoughts, typically supported by the presence of a cadence.

Each voice in a piano score may have its own independent phrasing. However, when a lower voice is accompanying an upper voice, the lower will typically end a phrase around the same time as the upper, coordinating to create the sense of cadence. Pay special attention when deviating from this general rule.

You should also mark sub-phrases and motives. Motives are the smallest definable ideas in music. Sub-phrases are more developed but remain incomplete, perhaps like clauses in a sentence.

Note that the phrase mark subsumes the sub-phrase and motive marks, and the sub-phrase mark subsumes the motive mark. That is, a sub-phrase boundary implicitly terminates a motive, and a phrase boundary implicitly terminates a sub-phrase and a motive. So at most one mark should follow any given note.

Differentiating sub-phrases and phrases can be difficult. When you have serious doubts about this distinction, prefer short phrases over long ones.

Always annotate the last phrases in the piece on both staffs. If a piece ends in the middle of a phrase on either staff, we need to change how the larger work has been divided into sections. [Let Dave know.]

Comparing Annotations

I may email you a zip file, so you can compare each other's annotations. Please follow these steps:

1. Unzip the contents.
2. Open abcDE.
3. Click the cog button.
4. Set Restore Data to Never.
5. Click Close.
6. Refresh your browser window.
7. Open the individual files (through the "Choose File" button).

To see Anne's annotations, select 1 from the Sequence spinner. To see Justin's annotations, select 2.

When you are done, do the following or abcDE will never remember fingerings that you have entered previously in the browser:

1. Click the cog button.
2. Set Restore Data to Always.
3. Click Close.
4. Refresh your browser window.

Note that relying on the browser to remember your work is fraught with peril. Whenever you have work you want to save for later, you need to do this:

1. Make sure the Annotated checkbox is not checked.
2. Click the eyeball button.
3. Select all of the text.
4. Copy it to a text file using TextEdit (Mac) or NotePad (Windows).
5. Save that file.

This is awkward, but I don't have an easier way to do this at the moment.