Mazurka Audio Markup Files

The audio markup files for individual mazurka performances are genereated for the cross-platform sound editor Audacity version 1.3 or higher.

Here is a screen shot of Audacity which displays the use of the label files, with the second label selected:

The labels codes for each measure contain the following components:

  1. P# -- This is the performance measure number. Performance measure numbers start at 0 if there are any pickup beats at the beginning of the mazurka, or they start at 1 if the first beat is a downbeat. Performance measure numbers always increment by one to the end of the performance.
  2. A# -- This is the absolute be number into the performance for the first beat in the measure region. The absolute beat count always starts at beat 0 on the first beat of the performance.
  3. S# -- This is the score measure number. The score can have regions of music which are repeated, but have the same measure number on paper, eventhough the performance measure number will be different for each repetition. The number is useful when referencing the audio to a written score.
  4. R# -- When a score measure is repeated in the performance, an R number is shown in the label which indicates how many times that this measure has been played in the performance. For example, R2 would indicate that this is the second occurance of this measure in the performance (although it only appears once in the score). This number is useful for comparing the performance during different repetitions of the same music in the score.
So the meaning of the highlighted label in the above screen shot means:
  1. This is the 60th measure in the performance. (There are 59 measures plus a possible pickup measure before this label).
  2. The first beat in the measure is the 179th beat in the performance (the first beat is beat 0). This value is mostly used for working with the raw automatic alignment data.
  3. This is the 28th measure in the score. Pickup measures in the score are labeled as measure 0, and the first complete measure in the written score is measure 1.
  4. The value R2 indicates that the performer has already played S28 once before, and this is the second occurance of the same measure in the performance. You can listen to the first occurance of this measure by searching earlier in the audio for a label containing S28.

The Label file for this example is given below:

To load the labels into Audacity, go to the Audacity menu option Project --> Import Labels .... Then select the correct label file for the particular performance loaded into the audio editor.

Label Usage Tips

Here are some useful usage tips for the labels in Audacity:

  • You can select the next label by pressing the tab key.

  • You can select the previous label by pressing shift-tab keys.

  • When the audio file is zoomed-out, you can expand the label track to view all of the labels which are too wide to be displayed on a single line.

  • More that one label track can be displayed at a time in Audacity. Here is an example of raw tapping data marking the boundaries in one track, while the bottom label track contains the corrected measure boundaries:


  • Measure labeling files include a companion file with labels consisting of only a measure number and repeat indicator, if applicable. For example, here is a set of labels which only show the score measure numbers. The highlighted label is measure 5 from the second repeat. The audio from the first occurance of measure 5 can quickly be compared with the second repeat of the measure with these measure labels.