While this theory may seem somewhat enigmatic, American researchers set out to test its veracity. They discovered that the music of the German genius is highly methodical, which explains why it is so pleasing to the ear.
Suman Kulkarni, of the University of Pennsylvania, and colleagues came to this conclusion after analysing Bach’s repertoire.
To do this, they translated each of his compositions into an information network, representing each note as a node and each transition between notes as an edge connecting them. This enabled them to compare the amount of information contained in each of Bach’s musical works.
The researchers noticed that some of his creations were richer in information than others. This is particularly true of toccatas, free-form compositions that allow the musician to show off their range of skills. These contain more information than chorales, musical works of a religious nature.
With this in mind, the research team set out to measure to what extent (and at what moments) listeners experience surprise when they hear Bach’s compositions.
They wanted to determine whether there was a discrepancy between music lovers’ expectations and the way Bach constructed his works. As it turns out, this is not really the case: the notes follow one another quite logically in the German musician’s compositions.
The researchers were thus able to conclude that, thanks to their mathematical structure, Bach’s pieces deliver information quite effectively.
“Our findings shed light on the information and network properties of Bach’s compositions,” the researchers write in their paper, recently published in the journal Physical Review Research.
Although this research has methodological limitations, it could help composers in their creative processes.
“For example, in music composition software, one could add a feature that displays the music network composed thus far and its entropy measures, etc. [a measure of the unpredictability or variability of a source of information, Ed.], etc. Composers can then use these measures as feedback in their music writing process,” the researchers suggest.