Lyric Recognition and Christian Music

Abstract

The chapter is about lyric recognition in Optical Music Recognition (OMR). Discussion is made in the context of Christian music where the lyric is definitive of the genre. Lyrics are obviously found in other music contexts, but they are of primary importance in Christian music — where the words are as integral as the notation. This chapter (i) identifies the inseparability of notation and word in Christian music, (ii) isolates the challenges of lyric recognition in OMR providing some examples of lyric recognition achieved by current scanning software and (iii) considers some solutions outlining page segmentation and character/word recognition approaches, particularly focusing upon the target of recognition, as a high level representation language, that integrates the music with lyrics. The motivation for this chapter includes the observation that high quality lyric recognition is largely omitted by OMR research, but in the context of a music genre inseparable from the word, it is vital. Theoretical, practical (typesetting arrangements/singing synthesis) and philosophical reasons motivate a better examination of lyric recognition.