ChoraleBricks: A Modular Multitrack Dataset for Wind Music Research

ChoraleBricks is a dataset designed to support research in Music Information Retrieval (MIR) with a focus on wind and brass instruments. It features multitrack recordings of ten different chorales, each arranged in four musical parts: soprano, alto, tenor, and bass. A key feature of ChoraleBricks is its modular structure: the dataset provides isolated recordings of individual parts performed by a diverse selection of wind instruments, including flute, oboe, clarinet, trumpet, saxophone, baritone, trombone, and tuba. These isolated recordings act as building blocks or "bricks" that can be flexibly combined to create full ensemble mixes with varying instrumentations. Audio demonstrations are available on the accompanying website: https://audiolabs-erlangen.de/resources/MIR/2025-ChoraleBricks Included Components: Isolated recordings for individual wind instruments (2 hours and 10 minutes) Full ensemble recordings with different instrumentations (all ensemble permutations result in 52 hours and 18 minutes) Sheet music for all chorales in various formats Time-aligned symbolic music representations Conducting videos Reference annotations (fundamental frequencies, note events) Python software tools for parsing, mixing, annotation, and modular combination (available via GitHub: https://github.com/stefan-balke/choralebricks) Applications: ChoraleBricks is an open-source dataset that facilitates systematic experimentation and evaluation in various research areas, including: Multi-pitch estimation Note transcription Audio alignment Source separation Music education and interactive applications The dataset is provided under an open-access license to support the MIR and wind music research communities. If you use ChoraleBricks in your research, please cite the following paper: Stefan Balke, Axel Berndt, and Meinard MüllerChoraleBricks: A Modular Multitrack Dataset for Wind Music ResearchTransactions of the International Society for Music Information Retrieval, 2025. Further information and additional resources are available on the accompanying website: https://audiolabs-erlangen.de/resources/MIR/2025-ChoraleBricks