Multidimensional Assessment of Qinqiang Bitter Tone Performance via Cognitive Computation

ABSTRACT

Regional style music based on Qinqiang Opera's ‘bitter tone’ scale carries the unique charm of northwest Qin culture and its performance evaluation is of great significance for the inheritance of ethnic music. Existing evaluation methods either are confined to Western music theory or rely on expert subjective judgement, which weakens the scientificity and objectivity of the evaluation. To solve this problem, this paper proposes a cognitive computation‐based evaluation method for the performance of ethnic regional style music. Firstly, a Music Performance Quality Evaluation (MPQE) index system centred on ‘characteristic tone’ is constructed under the cognitive computation framework. Secondly, the MPQE index computing methods are proposed, including quantitative calculation based on the YIN algorithm and qualitative assessment based on the Delphi method. Finally, the radar chart method is adopted to realize multidimensional visualisation of the evaluation results. The case study includes twelve banhu students, covering all first‐to third‐year students at one institution. The expanded comparison illustrates the framework's application to performance diagnosis and teaching feedback, whereas its generalisability remains limited by the single institution and 16‐bar excerpt.