Entropy as a Measure of Musical Style: The Influence of a Priori Assumptions
John L. Snyder · Music Theory Spectrum · 1990
The present article examines some of the premises underlying previous applications of information theory to musical analysis, and suggests that those studies have failed because of faulty preanalytical assumptions. Chief among these are confusion of the concepts of pitch class and scale degree, dependence on notational devices (key signatures), and confusion over the treatment of modal differences. Tonal music is most appropriately analyzed in terms of scale degrees, referring all pitch materials in a work or movement to the principal key for meaning. These steps yield results both more discriminating and more plausible than those obtained in previous studies.