Re: musical complexity

[Bob Masta <audio@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Judging from the the title, the reference that Dan provided 
(about complexity and surprise) sounds germane. (I don't 
have access to the download.)

IMHO, music is all about the "frontier" that is the 
borderland between order and chaos.  We are bored by too 
much order, and repulsed by too much chaos. But the "too 
much" thresholds differ across individuals, and differ over 
time within any given individual.  (See
<http://www.daqarta.com/dw_qqee.htm> for more details, 
though may be too elementary for this group.)

So the psychological capacity to remember and predict is 
important, since that is the essence of pattern 
recognition, which is the heart of music.  Pure information 
theory would seem to be equivalent only if all listerners 
were equal (had the same pattern recognition 
sophistication, etc).  With musical training, listeners are 
better able to discern high-order patterns, and appreciate 
the deviations from them that add interest to the music.

Just my 2 cent's worth....

Bob Masta


======================
On 11 Aug 2011 at 15:29, Tom Cochrane wrote:

> (apologies for cross postings)
> 
> Dear listmembers
> 
> Does anyone know of any important articles or books which discuss the 
> issue of musical complexity? I am particularly interested to find papers 
> that debate how musical complexity should be understood at a high 
> theoretical level. For instance, should musical complexity be understood 
> in purely information theoretic terms or in terms of our psychological 
> capacity to predict and remember (e.g. analogous to the way that 
> amplitude differs from perceived loudness)?
> 
> cheers
> 
> Tom
==============
Bob Masta
 
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