script to sonify references from Derrida's Of Grammatology

sonify-derrida-references.py

#!/usr/bin/env python

# Based on sample script from https://programminghistorian.org/en/lessons/sonification#miditime

# currently written for python2; miditime only goes up to python 3.4
# pip install miditime

import csv
from collections import defaultdict

from miditime.miditime import MIDITime

# Instantiate the class with a tempo (120bpm is the default)
# and an output file destination.
mymidi = MIDITime(360, 'derrida-references.mid')  # 240 a bit slow

# List of notes. Each note is a list: [time, pitch, attack, duration]
midinotes = []

# http://www.electronics.dit.ie/staff/tscarff/Music_technology/midi/midi_note_numbers_for_octaves.htm
# ref type
notes_for_type = {
    'Citation': 60,  # C
    'Quotation': 62,  # D
    'Epigraph': 69,  # A
    'Footnote': 52  # lower E
}
# headings id,page,type_id,type
refs = defaultdict(dict)

with open('de-la-grammatologie_references.csv') as csvfile:
    reader = csv.DictReader(csvfile)
    for row in reader:
        # use page number for time offset,
        # citation type for note

        # group to get total count for page/type
        page = int(row['page'])
        reftype = row['type']
        if reftype not in refs[page]:
            refs[page][reftype] = 0
        refs[page][reftype] += 1

# determine max number of single type of ref per page,
# to scale volume
max_count = max([count for info in refs.itervalues()
                 for count in info.itervalues()])


def volume(val):
    # convert number of references to volume
    # https://stackoverflow.com/questions/929103/convert-a-number-range-to-another-range-maintaining-ratio
    old_max = max_count
    old_min = 1
    new_min = 60
    new_max = 255
    old_range = (old_max - old_min)
    new_range = (new_max - new_min)
    return (((val - old_min) * new_range) / old_range) + new_min

for page, info in refs.iteritems():
    for reftype, count in info.iteritems():
        midinotes.append([page, notes_for_type[reftype], volume(count), 1])


# Add a track with those notes
mymidi.add_track(midinotes)

# chapters
chapternotes = [
    # section 1
    # p. 11 exergue
    [11, 48, 255, 2],
    # p. 15 chapter 1
    [15, 48, 255, 2],
    # p. 41 chapter 2 (two note chord)
    [41, 48, 255, 2],
    [41, 52, 255, 2],
    # p. 105 chapter 3 (three note chord)
    [105, 48, 255, 2],
    [105, 52, 255, 2],
    [105, 55, 255, 2],
    # section 2
    # p141 intro
    [141, 48, 255, 2],
    # p. 145 chapter 1
    [145, 48, 255, 2],
    # p. 197 chapter 2 (two note chord)
    [197, 48, 255, 2],
    [197, 52, 255, 2],
    # p. 227 chapter 3 (three note chord)
    [227, 48, 255, 2],
    [227, 52, 255, 2],
    [227, 55, 255, 2],
    # p. 363 chapter 4 (four note chord)
    [363, 48, 255, 2],
    [363, 52, 255, 2],
    [363, 55, 255, 2],
    [363, 59, 255, 2],
]

# add a new track with chapter markers
mymidi.add_track(chapternotes)

# Output the .mid file
mymidi.save_midi()