ChoraleBricks: A Modular Multitrack Dataset for Wind Music Research

Concert band and wind music are deeply embedded in society and play a significant role in the cultural landscape of many countries, including Germany and Austria, particularly within the amateur music scene. However, this type of music, as well as research on wind and brass instruments in general, r...

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Main Authors: Stefan Balke, Axel Berndt, Meinard Müller
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Ubiquity Press 2025-04-01
Series:Transactions of the International Society for Music Information Retrieval
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Online Access:https://account.transactions.ismir.net/index.php/up-j-tismir/article/view/252
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author Stefan Balke
Axel Berndt
Meinard Müller
author_facet Stefan Balke
Axel Berndt
Meinard Müller
author_sort Stefan Balke
collection DOAJ
description Concert band and wind music are deeply embedded in society and play a significant role in the cultural landscape of many countries, including Germany and Austria, particularly within the amateur music scene. However, this type of music, as well as research on wind and brass instruments in general, remains largely overlooked in the field of music information retrieval (MIR). In this paper, we address this underexplored area by introducing ChoraleBricks, a framework featuring multitrack recordings of ten different chorales, each comprising four musical parts: soprano, alto, tenor, and bass. At its core, ChoraleBricks provides isolated recordings of individual parts performed by a diverse selection of wind instruments, including flute, oboe, clarinet, trumpet, saxophone, baritone horn, trombone, and tuba. These isolated recordings act as building blocks or “bricks” that can be modularly superimposed to create full mixes with varying instrumentation. In addition, ChoraleBricks provides sheet music, time‑aligned symbolic music representations, conducting videos, and reference annotations such as fundamental frequencies and note events. The framework is further enhanced by Python software tools that support parsing, mixing, annotation, and modular combination of the recorded audio material. With all multimedia and software components available as open‑source, ChoraleBricks provides a versatile framework for generating and augmenting datasets for polyphonic wind music. It supports systematic experimentation and facilitates evaluation across various research topics, including multi‑pitch estimation, note transcription, audio alignment, and music education applications.
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spelling doaj-art-30b7cbdaa403458abeaa295e312faac82025-08-20T01:54:02ZengUbiquity PressTransactions of the International Society for Music Information Retrieval2514-32982025-04-018139–5439–5410.5334/tismir.252252ChoraleBricks: A Modular Multitrack Dataset for Wind Music ResearchStefan Balke0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1306-3548Axel Berndt1https://orcid.org/0009-0006-2807-592XMeinard Müller2https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6062-7524International Audio Laboratories ErlangenPaderborn UniversityInternational Audio Laboratories ErlangenConcert band and wind music are deeply embedded in society and play a significant role in the cultural landscape of many countries, including Germany and Austria, particularly within the amateur music scene. However, this type of music, as well as research on wind and brass instruments in general, remains largely overlooked in the field of music information retrieval (MIR). In this paper, we address this underexplored area by introducing ChoraleBricks, a framework featuring multitrack recordings of ten different chorales, each comprising four musical parts: soprano, alto, tenor, and bass. At its core, ChoraleBricks provides isolated recordings of individual parts performed by a diverse selection of wind instruments, including flute, oboe, clarinet, trumpet, saxophone, baritone horn, trombone, and tuba. These isolated recordings act as building blocks or “bricks” that can be modularly superimposed to create full mixes with varying instrumentation. In addition, ChoraleBricks provides sheet music, time‑aligned symbolic music representations, conducting videos, and reference annotations such as fundamental frequencies and note events. The framework is further enhanced by Python software tools that support parsing, mixing, annotation, and modular combination of the recorded audio material. With all multimedia and software components available as open‑source, ChoraleBricks provides a versatile framework for generating and augmenting datasets for polyphonic wind music. It supports systematic experimentation and facilitates evaluation across various research topics, including multi‑pitch estimation, note transcription, audio alignment, and music education applications.https://account.transactions.ismir.net/index.php/up-j-tismir/article/view/252wind musicbrasswoodwindsmultitrackmulti-modal
spellingShingle Stefan Balke
Axel Berndt
Meinard Müller
ChoraleBricks: A Modular Multitrack Dataset for Wind Music Research
Transactions of the International Society for Music Information Retrieval
wind music
brass
woodwinds
multitrack
multi-modal
title ChoraleBricks: A Modular Multitrack Dataset for Wind Music Research
title_full ChoraleBricks: A Modular Multitrack Dataset for Wind Music Research
title_fullStr ChoraleBricks: A Modular Multitrack Dataset for Wind Music Research
title_full_unstemmed ChoraleBricks: A Modular Multitrack Dataset for Wind Music Research
title_short ChoraleBricks: A Modular Multitrack Dataset for Wind Music Research
title_sort choralebricks a modular multitrack dataset for wind music research
topic wind music
brass
woodwinds
multitrack
multi-modal
url https://account.transactions.ismir.net/index.php/up-j-tismir/article/view/252
work_keys_str_mv AT stefanbalke choralebricksamodularmultitrackdatasetforwindmusicresearch
AT axelberndt choralebricksamodularmultitrackdatasetforwindmusicresearch
AT meinardmuller choralebricksamodularmultitrackdatasetforwindmusicresearch