Nick Bailey

Photograph Nick Bailey is a Director of the Centre for Music Technology and is based in the Department of Electronics and Electrical Engineering at The University of Glasgow.

Upon graduating from The University of Durham in 1987, he worked at British Telecom Applied Technology "Comms Division" writing bespoke software for BT's larger customers, and maintaining large databases on alarmingly obsolete mainframe computers. Thus equipped with a working knowledge of the inappropriately coupled applied signal processing and corporate computing disciplines, he left as soon as etiquette would permit to return to Durham to read for a Ph.D. in The Application of Parallel Computers to the Processing of Musical Signals.

Appointed Lecturer in Electronic Engineering at the University of Leeds, he was a founder member and Deputy Director of their Interdisciplinary Centre for Scientific Research in Music (ICSRiM).

In 2000, he moved to The University of Glasgow to take over the directorship of the Electronic Engineering aspect of the CMT.

Contact Details

Dr Nicholas Bailey
Director, Centre for Music Technology
Dept of Electronics & Electrical Enineering
University of Glasgow
Rankine Building
Oakfield Avenue
Glasgow G12 8LT

tel +44 (0)141 330 4903

Previous Positions

1986–1987: Executive Engineer, British Telecom PLC, BT Applied Technology Communications Group (non-executive since 1983).
1990–1991: Temporary Lecturer, School of Engineering and Computing Science, University of Durham. 1991–2000: Lecturer in Electronic Engineering, University of Leeds. Deputy Director and founder member of Leeds University's ICSRiM (Interdisciplinary Centre for Scientific Research in Music)
2000–Present: Senior Lecturer, Department of Electronics and Electrical Engineering, The University of Glasgow; Director, Glasgow University Centre for Music Technology. A founder member and creator of n-ISM.

Ongoing Research Projects

Onset Detection using Time-Domain Techniques
A Hopf, Skip and a Jump

The application of quasi-chaotic differential equations in the time domain to improve the accuracy and reliablilty of onset detection from audio recordings.

Performance Markup Language

Computer analysis of musical performance requires simultaneous consideration of the score and the resulting performance data, because interesting information about the performance is contained within a performer's inflections and departure from the strict score rather than in the measured performance information itself. A method of representing these and possibly many other aspects of a given performance is therefore required. Performance Markup Language (PML) is an open, extendable XML-based representation which is intended to be used as a basis for systems used to investigate elements of musical performance. It can be used to extend XML-based musical notation representations to include support for the representation of performance markup and analytical structures.

Among the project's long-term aims is the provision of "music awareness" with relational databases such as PostgreSQL. A python extension for postgres is available which allows "musical arithmetic" (calculations involving intervals, beats and so on) to be undertaken. It is hosted at https://github.com/nickbailey/ThomasArne

Selected Previous Research Projects

Bogen

Empirical Study of Bowing Techniques in Bartok's Third String Quartet and other works. The Principal Investigator for this project is Carola Boehm (Head of Department of Contemporary Arts, Manchester Metropolitan University) Co-Investigators: Dr Amanda Bayley (Wolverhampton University); Prof Graham Hair.

Pierrot Lunaire

Empirical Study of Vocal Techniques in Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire The Principal Investigator for this project is Jane Manning (international soprano) Co-Investigators: Mr Ben Hillman and Prof Graham Hair.

Listening to Music: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Measurement, Analysis and Interpretation.

Conference and Colloquium Series, 2008–2010.

Multimodal Analysis of the Performance of Chopin's B-flat minor Sonata Finale

Engineering measurement techniques are applied to acquire data from expert pianists playing the finale of the B-flat minor piano sonata opus 35. There are few formal analyses of this piece, which was famously described by Taniskin as the composer's "wild child". There is, however, a very large number of recordings extant, and the goal of this project is to analyse these as thoroughly and objectively as possible in order to discover any signs of an emergent performance tradition which might inform future analysis and performance. Multi-modal data acquisition, whereby audio, MIDI, video and gestural information of performances by expert musicians, is carried out in collaboration with the RSAMD in Glasgow and the Royal Academy of Music in London.

Animatics for the Web (2002–2004)

Funded by Scottish Enterprise. The project involved the modification of the professional audio workstation application Ardour to permit the addition of an Anamatic capability (essentially a storyboard for film makers with limited animation such as whole-frame and layer pan, zoom and rotation). A method of displaying such animatics using a java-enabled web browser was also developed. The resulting software formed the bulk of the open-source Animix project.

OpenDrama — The Digital Heritage of Opera in the Open Network Environment (2001–2004)

European Commission project (Total funding: 1,249,000ドル. GU CMT share: 199,000ドル.00) with Carola Böhm involving an international consortium, including commercial technical partners and Opera North (UK). The aim of the project was to facilitate the storage and dissemination of operatic artefacts, beyond the obvious audio and video content (including, for example, choreographic, set design information, critical analysis etc) . The Glasgow CMT work-packet included the delivery platform, aspects of database design and implementation, aspects of HCI design and implementation, and multi-channel AV codec research.

Rehearsing Microtonal Music: Grappling with Performance and Intonational Problems (2006–2007)

AHRC-funded project, 4,976,ドル with Dr I Pearson (RCM, Principal Investigator), A Morrison (BBC Singers), Prof R Parncutt (University of Graz), and D McGilvray (CMT Glasgow), involving the composition and performance of microtonal music, i.e. music which does not have twelve equal divisions of the octave. The technology developed involved the delivery of modified MIDI sequencer software which is capable of real-time and off-line analysis of the pitch of a performance and displays it alongside musical notation for the purposes of rehearsal.

CIRCUS (Content-Integrated Research into Creative User Systems)

A European Commission-funded project. Total funding: 2,000,000ドル (300,000ドル to The University of Glasgow). Project commenced in 1997; participant since 2000. Completed successfully in 2001. The project consisted of a highly interdisciplinary group from areas including, inter alia, Fine Art, Psychology, Engineering, Computing Science, and Music, to discuss, demonstrate and develop methods and interfaces for interdisciplinary rich-media artefacts. Culminated in 2001 in the Conference on Content-Integrated Research into Creative User Systems at The University of Glasgow.

DMRN (Digital Music Research Network)

EPSRC-funded research network. Participant since its inception in 2001. Managed by Mark Plumbley, Queen Mary Collage, University of London. Glasgow CMT organised first DMRN conference in 2005. The research network spawned a successful and sustained annual conference series.

Selected Publications

Nicholas J Bailey, Alex South, Ingrid Pearson, Roslyn Dunlop, Sir Henri Bok, Katrina Nimmo Developing a Microtonal Clarinet via Wind Controller and 3D Printing Lecture with the International Clarinet Consortium, International Clarinet Association Clarinetfest2015 24th July 2015, Madrid, Spain

Nicholas J Bailey, Théo Cremel, Alex South Using Acoustic Modelling to Design and Print a Microtonal Clarinet Proc Conference of Interdisciplinary Musicology, Berlin, 2014
(Slides LibreOffice odp file, zipped)

Jennifer MacRitchie and Nicholas J Bailey Efficient Tracking of Pianists' Finger Movements Journal of New Music Research
Bryony Buck, Jennifer MacRitchie and Nicholas J Bailey The Interpretive Shaping of Embodied Musical Structure in Piano Performance Empricial Musicology Review 8(2), pp92-119
Jennifer MacRitchie, Bryony Buck, Nicholas J. Bailey Inferring Musical Structure through Bodily Gestures Musicæ Scientæ

Manlio Tassieri1, R M L Evans, Rebecca L Warren, Nicholas J Bailey and Jonathan M Cooper Microrheology with Optical Tweezers: Data Analysis New J. Phys. 14 (2012) 115032

Graham Percival, Nicholas Bailey, George Tzanetakis Physical Modeling meets Machine Learning: Teaching Bow Control to a Virtual Violinist 8th Sound and Music Conference, Padova, 2011.
Cordelia Hall, John T. O'Donnell, and Nicholas Bailey BowScribe: Supporting the violinist's performance model. International Symposium on Performance Science (ISPS 2011), August 2011, Toronto.

Bryony Buck, Nicholas Bailey, Jennifer MacRitchie, Richard Parncutt Performers' Body Motion and Phrase Structure: The role of velocity magnitude. 3rd International Conference on Music and Gesture, McGill University, Montreal, Canada, 2010.

Stuart Pullinger, Nicholas Bailey, Jennifer MacRitchie, Margaret McAllister Computer Assisted Analysis and Display of Musical and Performance Data Proceedings of the International Symposium of Performance Science Auckland, New Zealand
Bryony Buck, Jennifer MacRitchie, Nicholas Bailey Perceptual recognition of embodied musical structure Musical Body Conference 2009, Institute for Music Research. IMR, University of London UK
Jennifer MacRitchie, Bryony Buck, Nicholas Bailey Visualising Musical Structure through Performance Gesture Proceedings of the 10th International Society for Music Information Retrieval Conference, 26th-30th October 2009, Kobe, Japan
Jennifer MacRitchie, Bryony Buck, Nicholas Bailey Gestural Communication: Linking the Multi-Modal Analysis of Performance to Perception of Musical Structure Proceedings of the International Symposium of Performance Science Auckland, New Zealand
Jennifer MacRitchie, Stuart Pullinger, Graham Hair, Nicholas Bailey Communicating Phrasing Structure with Multi-Modal Expressive Techniques in Piano Performance Proceedings of The Second International Conference on Music Communication Science, 3-4 December 2009, Sydney, Australia

Nicholas Bailey, Douglas McGilvray, Graham Hair Musically Significant, Automatic Localisation of Note Boundaries for the Performance Analysis of Vocal Music Proc Conf Interdisciplinary Musicology, Thessaloniki, 2008 (The unabridged version contains some extra material which could not easily be reproduced in Microsoft Word)
Bryony Buck, Graham Hair, Nicholas Bailey One voice or many?: Compound melody and auditory streaming Proc Conf Interdisciplinary Musicology, Thessaloniki, 2008
Nicholas Bailey, Douglas McGilvray, Graham Hair, Ingrid Pearson, Amanda Morrison, Richard Parncutt The Rosegarden Codicil: Rehearsing Music in Nineteen-Tone Equal Temperament Proc International Computer Music Conference, 2008.
Stuart Pullinger, Douglas McGilvray, Nicholas Bailey Music and Gesture File: Performance Visualisation, Analysis, Storage and Exchange Proc International Computer Music Conference, 2008.

Niall Moody, Nick Fells, Nicholas Bailey Ashitaka: an audionvisual instrument Proc New Interfaces for Musical Expression, 2007.
Graham Hair, Ingrid Pearson, Amanda Morrison, Nicholas Bailey, Douglas McGilvray, Richard Parncutt The Rosegarden Codicil: Rehearsing Music in Nineteen-Tone Equal Temperament Scottish Music Review, v1(1).
Jennifer MacRitchie, Nicholas Bailey, Graham Hair Multi-modal Analysis of Performance Parameters in Chopin's B Flat Minor Piano Sonata Finale Op.35 Proc. DMRN+1 University of London Queen Mary College, Dec 2006.
Graham Hair, Douglas McGilvray, Nicholas Bailey, Ingrid Pearson Tools for Expert Musicians for Practising and Rehearsing Microtonal Music Proc. DMRN+1 University of London Queen Mary College, Dec 2006.

Invited Presentations

Download Slides Tools for the Musically Empirical with Keziah Milligan "Tools for the Musically Empirical: Notating, Storing and Processing Music which Isn't 12EDO using a Computer" 24th April 2016, Musica Scotica Conference, Stirling.

Empiricism and Listening: Remarks on the Relationship between Measurement, Analysis and Interpretation with Graham Hair "Listening, Audiences and Participation" Colloquium, The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK, November 16-17, 2009
View Paper Informing Microtonal Performance through Listening with Alex South (clariettist) "The Anatomy of Listening" Colloquium, Glasgow University (2009).
Empirical Studies of Musical Performance: Measurement, Analysis & Interpretation with Graham Hair and Ben Hillman Grove Forum, Royal College of Music, London, January 15, 2009
Department of Adult and Continuing Education (DACE) Study Day with all contemporary CMT members Glasgow University, June 14, 2008

Download Slides A Computer Representation of Pitch Based on the Spiral of Fifths with Stuart Pullinger and Graham Hair Napier University Department of Music, September 2007
Rehearsing Microtonal Music with Amanda Morrison, Ingrid Pearson, Douglas McGilvray and Graham Hair Sir George Grove Research Series, Royal College of Music, London, 18th May 2006.
Thinking and Performing Microtonally: Rehearsal Strategies in 19ET using the Rosegarden Codicil with Douglas McGilvray and Graham Hair Stirling University Perception Conference, Department of Psycology, Dec 2006
Bringing the Marginal into the Mainstream: Overcoming the Problems of Thinking, Composing and Performing Microtonally with Douglas McGilvray and Graham Hair The University of Edinburgh Research Colloquium, 9th Nov 2006.
Between Hardware and Protien: Pig in the Middle with Douglas McGilvray and Graham Hair Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama Research Colloquium, 20th Feb 2006.
Thinking Microtonally with Amanda Morrison (soprano), Graham Hair, and Douglas McGilvray , Royal Musical Association Research Colloqium, 1st Feb 2006.
Seminars at Boston College and Boston University followed by a Performance: DiVersions for Microtonal Violin with Pictures. Composer: Margaret McAllister, violinist Brenda van der Merwe, painter Cathy Lebowitz. 4th Nov 2006.

Released Software

Rosegarden Codicil

This is an interrim release of the Glasgow Pitch Tracker codicil for Rosegarden. If you are looking for a regular version of Rosegarden, the great MIDI sequencer for Linux, you should go to the main site at http://www.rosegardenmusic.com/. This released is based on an old version, modified slightly to compile and install on a modern Linux box (tested on Ubuntu 9.04 "Jaunty"). It will only be of any use to you if you intend to run experiments in systematic musicology, or need to use the microtonal real-time pitch trajectory analysis capability.

You can download what you need from this directory. For easy installation, please attend to the README file.

Technology Demonstrators

No longer available because of Glasgow University poicy on off-site access.

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