MUSICAL HARMONY - A FUZZY ENTROPIC CHARACTERIZATION

An entropic approach to musical harmony is investigated in this paper. We use an entropy function to characterise the complexity of the resultant sonic object when a combination of notes is played together. Subjective preferences of this complexity measure form the basis for the individualistic perception of banality, harmony and disharmony. Thus the above approach provides a framework to characterise the musical orientation of a particular cultural group. The significance of the paper is that the entropy measure is based on the physical attributes of the sonic object. It is not an absolute index but helps in obtaining a relative order of harmoniousness for various note combinations. We note that though there is a difference of opinion with regards to what is harmonious, there is a general agreement on the relative order. The relative order obtained using the entropy measure matches with the order that is generally agreed upon.