July 30, 2008
what music looks like
Since this dates to 2001, this is old news, but I just ran across it last week and thought it was gorgeous:
[The Shape of Song, Martin Wattenberg]
Wattenberg developed this kind of diagram, the arc diagram, to visualize "repetition at varying scales within a linear sequence":
"The diagrams in The Shape of Song display musical form as a sequence of translucent arches. Each arch connects two repeated, identical passages of a composition. By using repeated passages as signposts, the diagram illustrates the deep structure of the composition."
Both macro patterns and micro patterns are documented, with the difference in scale between those patterns immediately obvious. Since that's probably not a very clear explanation, I recommend going to read Wattenberg's own explanation (the explanatory diagrams make all the difference in explaining diagrams). A shorter explanation can be found here.
A number of other people have used this diagramming methodology (or a variation on it) to explore other kinds of data; perhaps my favorite is "Visualizing the Bible", which maps cross-references within the Bible into an interactive diagram.