Method for the generation of a signature of a musical audio signal of a given duration, the method comprising the following steps: - modelling said musical audio signal in order to obtain, for each frequency band of a set of n frequency bands, n being strictly greater than 1, a diagram representing the energy of the audio signal for said frequency band, as a function of time during said given duration; - determining musical transition times t k of the audio signal during the given duration, in which the musical transition times t k correspond to the local maxima of an onset function calculated on the basis of the musical audio signal; - associating each musical transition time t k with an item of local information comprising a vector of n values representative respectively of the energy of the audio signal in each of the n diagrams obtained between the musical transition time t k and a subsequent musical transition time t k+1 and/or a vector of n values representative respectively of the energy of the audio signal in each of the n diagrams obtained between the musical transition time t k and a preceding musical transition time t k-1; - determining, as a function of the item of local information associated with each musical transition time t k, a key associated with said musical transition time, the determined keys forming a first set of keys of the audio signal; - generating a signature of the musical audio signal comprising couples, each couple comprising a key from the first set of keys and an associated musical transition time t k; in which the keys in the first set of keys are obtained by quantization of the vectors of n values representative respectively of the energy of the signal in each frequency band in the set of n frequency bands in a period comprised between the musical transition time t k and a following musical transition time t k+1 or by quantization of the vectors of n values representative respectively of the energy of the signal in each frequency band in the set of n frequency bands in a period comprised between the musical transition time t k and a preceding musical transition time t k-1. - modelling said musical audio signal in order to obtain, for each frequency band of a set of n frequency bands, n being strictly greater than 1, a diagram representing the energy of the audio signal for said frequency band, as a function of time during said given duration; - determining musical transition times t k of the audio signal during the given duration, in which the musical transition times t k correspond to the local maxima of an onset function calculated on the basis of the musical audio signal; - associating each musical transition time t k with an item of local information comprising a vector of n values representative respectively of the energy of the audio signal in each of the n diagrams obtained between the musical transition time t k and a subsequent musical transition time t k+1 and/or a vector of n values representative respectively of the energy of the audio signal in each of the n diagrams obtained between the musical transition time t k and a preceding musical transition time t k-1; - determining, as a function of the item of local information associated with each musical transition time t k, a key associated with said musical transition time, the determined keys forming a first set of keys of the audio signal; - generating a signature of the musical audio signal comprising couples, each couple comprising a key from the first set of keys and an associated musical transition time t k;