The MPB Corpus: A Dataset of Melody, Rhythm, Harmony, and Melody-Harmony Relationships in Brazilian Popular Music

Abstract

This paper presents the MPB Corpus, a collection of 500 musical pieces encoded across four musical parameters: melodic contour, melodic rhythm, harmony, and the relationship between melody and harmony. It constitutes the most comprehensive and detailed dataset to date for computational musicology of Brazilian music. To support the encoding process, we introduce specific analytical models designed to capture rhythmic and melodic information with precision, alongside tailored visualizations and metrics summarizing key musical parameters. Finally, we provide a brief qualitative exploratory analysis of the dataset, illustrating its potential to both formulate and systematically address musicological questions concerning the genre.