A system and method for querying a music database, the database containing a plurality of indexed pieces of music, where the query is performed by forming a database request consisting of a conditional expression relating to the name and/or attributes of the desired piece of music. Associated features are derived from the database query, and compared with corresponding features for the other pieces of music in the database. A desired piece of music is determined by searching for a minimum distance between the database query features and those associated with the pieces of music in the database.