Exploring musical style in the anonymous and doubtfully attributed mass movements of the Coimbra manuscripts: a statistical and machine learning approach

Abstract

This paper studies the music from the sixteenth century Coimbra manuscripts using both traditional musicological approaches and techniques based on statistical analysis and machine learning. A particular focus is placed on gaining insights into the origins of the anonymous and doubtfully attributed mass movements, looked at through the lens of potential stylistic differences between the Iberian and Franco-Flemish musical traditions of the time. Another goal is to explore the origins of the Coimbra works in the historical, political and social context of the reception of foreign repertoires.