A system for interpreting the requests and performance of a vocal soloist, stated in the parlance of the musician and within the context of a specific published edition of music the soloist is using, to control the performance of a digitized musical accompaniment. Sound events and their associated attributes are extracted from the soloist vocal performance and are numerically encoded. The pitch, duration and event type of the encoded sound events are then compared to a desired sequence of the performance score to determine if a match exists between the soloist performance and the performance score. Variations in pitch due to vibrato are distinguished from changes in pitch due to the soloist moving from one note to another in the performance score. If a match exists between the soloist vocal performance and the performance score, the system instructs a music synthesizer module to provide an audible accompaniment for the vocal soloist.
APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR ANALYZING VOCAL AUDIO DATA TO PROVIDE ACCOMPANIMENT TO A VOCALIST