Listening Spaces     The "Information"

Musical Redundancy, Information and Entropy

The way, people behave to music proves that music transports a "meaningful" message. The degree of acceptance depends on the degree of information the music provides to a certain listener. Obviously, the degree of information depends on the listener's musical experiences he learned during his lifetime. Generally, there are three states of the information degree: Redundancy: Repetition and re-enforcement of known information Information: Modification of known information (changed form or context, new components) Entropy: Information that cannot be related to the existing contextual information Redundancy, information and entropy are effective on all musical levels, including stylistic recognition. The degree of information may significantly differ on various levels.

Musical Redundancy "I know this music." "I know in advance what will happen next." "This music is useful. I like to have it in the background while doing work." "This music is boring."

Musical Information "This piece is interesting." "I thought this harmonic change would lead to another direction." "After this kind of introduction, I expected something else." "I would like to know another piece of this composer."

Musical Entropy "This music sounds chaotic." "It says nothing to me. Maybe I have to know more about it?" "Not interesting. It changes always without any reason." "It is too capricious. It makes me nervous."

Transformations

There is a process of moving from the perception of entropy to the perception of redundancy (no learning process could be enabled). There is a process of moving from the perception of entropy or redundancy to the perception of information (a learning process could be enabled).

The Entropy-Redundancy Switch "I don't understand this music. It says nothing to me. It is just boring." "Please not again this chaotic sounds. I cannot hear it any more." "They tell me about little moves in the sound - I hear only violin." "I don't like Bach. It sounds always the same."

The Entropy/Redundancy-Information Progression "I couldn't believe liking this music. I simply came used to it, and since then I repeatedly discover new things." "Since I know the background of the whole story with that piece, I listen to it completely different." "They told me about little moves in the sound - it took me some time until I understood what they really mean. It's amazing." "I thought Mozart sounds always the same. Now, thanks to my friend I know where to listen to."

Genotype and Phenotype

Genotype: Entirety of information, methods and structures that are intentionally used to produce a piece of music. Phenotype: Entirety of information that can be recognized through the listening perception of the music.

The Genotype-Phenotype-Relation "I listened to this fugue several times. Only now I discovered that there has been an inversion of the subject as well." "You don't need to follow the 12 tone order in this piece." "I dislike the ongoing repetition of this phrase. This is too obvious for my taste." "This harmonic change is really surprisingly. How is this done?"

The Musical Relevancy-Test An outcome of genotype A is provided: "I recognized this musical example." Phenotype A is being recognized. An outcome of genotype A' is provided: "It sounds the same." "I don't get a different impression." "It seems of the same quality." Phenotype A is still being recognized. The method of changing genotype A into genotype A' is of none or of minor musical relevance. An outcome of genotype A'' is provided: "Something is different." "I got somehow a different impression." "It sounds much better, even so I don't know why." A phenotype different from the original A is being recognized. The method of changing genotype A into genotype A'' is of musical relevance.

RELATED TOPICS

Principle of Audio-Receptive Accumulation    Principles of Muscial Object Relations

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