1306.0229 (Maria Mannone)

Characterization of the degree of Musical non-Markovianity    [PDF]

Maria Mannone

Musical compositions could be characterized by a certain degree of memory, that takes into account repetitions and similarity of sequences of pitches, durations and intensities (the patterns). The higher the quantity of variations, the lower the degree of memory. This degree has never quantitatively been defined and measured. In physics, mathematical tools to quantify memory (defined as non-Markovianity) in quantum systems have been developed. The aim of this paper is to extend these mathematical tools to music, defining a general method to measure the degree of memory in musical compositions. Applications to some musical scores give results that agree with the expectations.

View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1306.0229