Lesson Two--What is MIR? or Finding that Heavy Manners Song

In the simplest terms MIR stands for Music Information Retrieval. To an every day user it may involve finding the song that they desire when they only remember a snippet of lyrics. To a scholar it may involve finding all subsequent compositions influenced by one piece. Years ago I remember watching a documentary Bill Moyers did in 1990 about the hymn "Amazing Grace" in which he traces the history (and possible roots) of the song as well as the number of different versions of it. One would think that producing a documentary on the same subject today would be very easy. In some regards it would, as a computer search would allow the researcher to find numerous (but note, not all) recorded versions of the song. However, a computer search would not allow a researcher for find recordings that contain specific qualities such as differences in harmony or pitch. Even the act of finding a song without knowing the artist or lyrics can be almost impossible. If I went to a reference desk and asked the librarian to find the name of a Heavy Manners song based on a few lyrics, they would probably be successful. However, if I hummed the opening to "Flamin' First" they would give me a blank look.

Aside from the limits of a computer search, the very construction of such a search engine is fraught with difficulty. First there is the shear number of recordings as well as those pieces of music that have never been recorded. The record industry does not seem interested in helping to construct one given the strenghtening of their copyrights as upheld by the courts. They do not want to share their recordings without having first been paid a fee and given the number of recordings it would be financially impractical to finance such a database. Finally, if one were to construct the perfect database that allowed for all methods of searching, once it was constructed it would be immediately out of date. Formats are quickly changing and with each new "upgrade" the previous systems become woefully inadequate. Just think if you wanted to research the influence of the movie Citizen Kane on other films---and you have to go through VHS tapes to do it!

The best those in MIR can do is to try to keep up, while knowing that they will always be several steps behind.