{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,10]],"date-time":"2026-02-10T20:58:30Z","timestamp":1770757110122,"version":"3.50.0"},"reference-count":11,"publisher":"MIT Press","issue":"4","content-domain":{"domain":["direct.mit.edu"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":[],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2024,12,1]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title>\n                  <jats:p>We estimate the Kolmogorov complexity of melodies in traditional Irish dance music using Lempel-Ziv compression. The \u201ctunes\u201d are presented in so-called ABC notation as simply a sequence of letters from an alphabet: We show no rhythmic variation, with all notes represented as being of equal length. Our estimation of algorithmic complexity can be used to distinguish \u201csimple\u201d or \u201ceasy\u201d tunes (with more repetition) from more \u201cdifficult\u201d ones (with less repetition), which should prove useful for students learning to play the music. We further present a comparison of two tune categories (reels and jigs) in terms of their complexity.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1162\/comj.a.684","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,11,21]],"date-time":"2025-11-21T19:41:56Z","timestamp":1763754116000},"page":"65-72","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1162\/mitpressjournals.corrections.policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["The Kolmogorov Complexity of Traditional Irish Dance Music"],"prefix":"10.1162","volume":"48","author":[{"given":"Michael","family":"McGettrick","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences, University of Galway, Galway H91 TK33, Ireland, michael.mcgettrick@universityofgalway.ie"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Paul","family":"McGettrick","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Creative Arts Media and Music, Dundalk Institute of Technology, Dublin Road, Dundalk, Co. Louth, A91 K584, Ireland, paul.mcgettrick@dkit.ie"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"281","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,12,1]]},"reference":[{"issue":"4","key":"2026021011043693900_bib1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"49","DOI":"10.1162\/0148926042728449","article-title":"Algorithmic Clustering of Music Based on String Compression","volume":"28","author":"Cilibrasi","year":"2004","journal-title":"Computer Music Journal"},{"issue":"1\u20134","key":"2026021011043693900_bib2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"157","DOI":"10.1080\/00207166808803030","article-title":"Three Approaches to the Quantitative Definition of Information","volume":"2","author":"Kolmogorov","year":"1968","journal-title":"International Journal of Computer Mathematics"},{"key":"2026021011043693900_bib3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"3195","DOI":"10.1007\/s00453-020-00722-6","article-title":"Lempel-Ziv-Like Parsing in Small Space","volume":"82","author":"Kosolobov","year":"2020","journal-title":"Algorithmica"},{"key":"2026021011043693900_bib4","article-title":"Improving Melody Classification by Discriminant Feature Extraction and Fusion","author":"Li","year":"2004","journal-title":"Proceedings of the International Symposium on Music Information Retrieval"},{"key":"2026021011043693900_bib5","article-title":"Melody Classification Using a Similarity Metric Based on Kolmogorov Complexity","author":"Li","year":"2004","journal-title":"Journ\u00e9es d\u2019informatique musicale"},{"key":"2026021011043693900_bib6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-030-11298-1","volume-title":"An Introduction to Kolmogorov Complexity and Its Applications","author":"Li","year":"2019","edition":"4th"},{"issue":"1","key":"2026021011043693900_bib7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1080\/09298215.2015.1133656","article-title":"Using General-Purpose Compression Algorithms for Music Analysis","volume":"45","author":"Louboutin","year":"2016","journal-title":"Journal of New Music Research"},{"key":"2026021011043693900_bib8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1109\/CIP.2014.6844503","article-title":"Compression-Based Geometric Pattern Discovery in Music","author":"Meredith","year":"2014","journal-title":"International Workshop on Cognitive Information Processing"},{"issue":"6","key":"2026021011043693900_bib9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"872","DOI":"10.1109\/5.286191","article-title":"The Sliding-Window Lempel-Ziv Algorithm Is Asymptotically Optimal","volume":"82","author":"Wyner","year":"1994","journal-title":"Proceedings of the IEEE"},{"issue":"3","key":"2026021011043693900_bib10","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"337","DOI":"10.1109\/TIT.1977.1055714","article-title":"A Universal Algorithm for Sequential Data Compression","volume":"23","author":"Ziv","year":"1977","journal-title":"IEEE Transactions on Information Theory"},{"issue":"5","key":"2026021011043693900_bib11","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"530","DOI":"10.1109\/TIT.1978.1055934","article-title":"Compression of Individual Sequences via Variable-Rate Coding","volume":"24","author":"Ziv","year":"1978","journal-title":"IEEE Transactions on Information Theory"}],"container-title":["Computer Music Journal"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/direct.mit.edu\/comj\/article-pdf\/48\/4\/65\/2581395\/comj.a.684.pdf","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"syndication"},{"URL":"https:\/\/direct.mit.edu\/comj\/article-pdf\/48\/4\/65\/2581395\/comj.a.684.pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,10]],"date-time":"2026-02-10T16:05:36Z","timestamp":1770739536000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/direct.mit.edu\/comj\/article\/48\/4\/65\/134193\/The-Kolmogorov-Complexity-of-Traditional-Irish"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2024]]},"references-count":11,"journal-issue":{"issue":"4","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,12,1]]},"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2024,12,1]]}},"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1162\/comj.a.684","relation":{},"ISSN":["0148-9267","1531-5169"],"issn-type":[{"value":"0148-9267","type":"print"},{"value":"1531-5169","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published-other":{"date-parts":[[2024]]},"published":{"date-parts":[[2024]]}}}