BPSD: A Coherent Multi-Version Dataset for Analyzing the First Movements of Beethoven's Piano Sonatas

This repository contains the Beethoven Piano Sonata Dataset (BPSD), a multi-version dataset focusing on the first movements of Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas. Recognized as pivotal works in classical music, Beethoven's piano sonatas have profoundly shaped Western classical music, holding a significant place in cultural history.

The BPSD includes sheet music in different machine-readable formats and audio recordings from eleven performances, with four of them being in the public domain and freely accessible for research purposes. A key feature of BPSD is its coherence, ensuring alignment of all versions on a unified musical timeline and enforcing consistent structures through careful editing of both score and audio representations.

From a technical perspective, BPSD facilitates the assessment of algorithmic approaches in tasks like harmony analysis, structure analysis, music transcription, beat and downbeat estimation, and score following. The dataset's coherence makes it an ideal platform for systematically training and evaluating deep learning methods, shedding light on their robustness and uncovering data biases across different data splits using cross-version strategies for evaluation. 

On a musicological level, BPSD enables the systematic analysis and exploration of Beethoven's piano sonatas, providing insights into their influence on the development of harmony and structure in Western classical music. Beyond research applications, the dataset also holds educational potential, aiding in the preparation and presentation of Beethoven's work to a broader audience through interactive multimedia experiences.