BriFormer - Dashboard


Create a new BriForm using an audio file on your device.

Create a new BriForm using a YouTube link

Current Version: 1.2

Examples

"Main Title" Batman (1989)

Danny Elfman

"Defying Gravity" from Wicked

Stephen Schwartz

"Diamonds"

Rhianna

Intermezzo in A major, Op. 118, No. 2

Johannes Brahms

Piano Trio in D minor, Op. 49, No. 1, IV (mm 1-28)

Mendelssohn

"Look What You Made Me Do"

Taylor Swift

Piano Sonata in A minor, K. 310, I

Mozart

"Parto Parto" from La Clemenza di Tito

Mozart

Tutorial

to watch a brief tutorial

Feedback

Your feedback with bugs would be greatly appreciated! If you have feedback, please submit it with the Google Forms survey at . Thanks!

Keyboard Shortcuts

Action Keyboard Shortcut
Split s
Group g
Zoom in +
Zoom out -
Forward 10 seconds right arrow
Backward 10 seconds left arrow
Forward 1 second shift+right arrow
Backward 1 second shift+left arrow
Unselect all escape
Delete (join with left) delete (not backspace), or control+shift+d
Delete (join with right) backspace (not delete)
Undo control + z
Redo control + y
Add Marker m
Delete Marker delete or backspace
Navigate Groups Windows: control+arrow keys. MacOS: control+command+arrow keys
Select Multiple Groups Windows: shift+control+arrow keys. MacOS: shift+control+command+arrow keys
Delete Marker delete or backspace

Previous Versions

About BriFormer

BriFormer was created by me, Brian Edward Jarvis, to facilitate the study and joy of formal analysis of music in essentially any style and to make it possible to share analyses between anyone who might be interested. Like many others, I was really inspired by Brent Yorgason's Audio Timeliner (a.k.a. Variations Audio Timeliner). The experience of engaging with formal analysis from a primarily aural perspective was inspiring and exciting and helped broaden my understanding of what the analysis of musical form could be. Musical form is often studied within the context of a single style of music, but Yorgason's program showed me that a more universal approach was possible and powerful.


After studying musical form and phrase structure from the books and articles of some of my favorite music theorists (William Rothstein, James Hepokoski & Warren Darcy, Janet Schmalfeldt, William Caplin, and Mark Richards) and doing some research of my own with my colleague John Peterson, I realized Audio Timeliner lacked a number of details and features I needed to accurately convey my musical analyses (and it stopped working on my computer ...). For example, I needed to convey when phrases elide, when they are auxiliary sections and not core sections, and I also wanted a way to analyze music that I didn't own and I wanted a modern way to share analyses online.


However, those issues weren't nearly enough motivation to create a whole new program. The real motivation to actual dive into the project came when I decided to overhaul my Form & Analysis course at my University (The University of Texas at El Paso). I had grown tired of using existing materials that focused on such a small amount of the world's music and wanted to increase student engagement by allowing my students to pick the music they wanted to analyze instead me telling them which music to analyze. To do that, I had to create BriFormer and establish a general approach to musical form to accompany it. You can find my writings about "Musical Form in General" here.


My love of musical analysis began when my classes included music that I wanted to know more about and already liked. As a primarily classical pianist that played mostly tonal music, the textbooks were filled with music from my repertoire and I loved learning about it. However, most musicians aren't classical pianists so they aren't being engaged in the same way. Another major motivation for creating this program and changing my course was to allow the students to study and share the music they love, instead of studying the music someone else loves. The change has resulted in a major shift in student enjoyment, engagement, and the students now really enjoy formal analysis and I couldn't be happier about that change. My wonderful Fall 2020 class has been incredibly helpful in stress testing the program and helping to find bugs and I couldn't be more grateful for their help and patience with the development of BriFormer. Thanks, Everyone! 😁



Copyright © 2022 by Brian Edward Jarvis - All rights reserved

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