An Introduction to Contemporary Music Theory and Complex Systems: Entropy, Density, Cadences

Traditional music theory struggles to provide a framework for the complex sonic structures of 21st-century music, often overlooking the structural roles of noise, timbre, and space.This book introduces a unified analytical framework based on Complex Systems Theory and Entropy to understand musical form. The core premise is that our perception of music is not an isolated phenomenon but is rooted in our everyday experience of our surroundings, which is governed by entropic processes.The book argues that the classical idea of cadence may have evolved beyond the strict use of pitch parameters.Drawing from original empirical psychoacoustic studies, it suggests that listeners may perceive cadence in the transition from order to disorder - in movements from structured pitches to high-entropy noise or in the perception of discontinuities in spatial sound.The book applies these concepts to analyze works by Varèse, Ligeti, Saariaho, Berio, Roads, and others, offering composers and scholars a pow