This project aims to create static images representing musical compositions. Each image is like a fingerprint of the song that visually expresses that piece’s use of instruments, rhythmic layout, and how expressively the piece is performed. Information about the music was collected through midi files of each piece. Through Processing/Java, these midi files were parsed and evaluated to visually display various aspects of the songs.

Each note within the piece is represented by small circles. The center circle represents the center of a keyboard, “Middle C”. The placement of a note is determined by the size of its interval from middle c.

The notes are placed on a square canvas based on the distance from middle C (creating its distance from the center) and also based on where it is played within the measure it is in. This way, if a note is played on the first beat, it will be displayed directly to the right of the center note, if a note is played on the second beat, it will be displayed directly below the center note, and so on. This visually displays the rhythmic patters within the composition as well as creating a strong graphic pattern that can be used to discern how expressively or rigidly a piece is played.

When a note is played, it is displayed in a color representing the instrument that played that note. This makes it easy to see patterns within individual instruments as well as the overall variety of instruments.

Through visually displaying these aspects of the music, one can begin to discover certain differences and similarities within the songs.  The images displayed on the poster are organized by genre so that the viewer can easily understand the differences of the pieces within each genre as well as the differences between the genres overall.