Synchronization in human musical rhythms and mutually interacting complex systems

Significance Though the statistical properties of musical compositions have been widely studied, little is known about the statistical nature of musical interaction—a foundation of musical communication. The goal of this study was to uncover the general statistical properties underlying musical inte...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS 2014-09, Vol.111 (36), p.12974-12979
Main Author: Hennig, Holger
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acoustic coupling
Auditory Perception
Complex systems
Correlation analysis
Electronic music
Humans
Memory
Models, Theoretical
Music
Musical intervals
Musical meter
Musical rhythm
Musical statistics
Musicians
Musicians & conductors
Periodicity
Physical Sciences
Power laws
Rhythm
Social interaction
Time series
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Summary:Significance Though the statistical properties of musical compositions have been widely studied, little is known about the statistical nature of musical interaction—a foundation of musical communication. The goal of this study was to uncover the general statistical properties underlying musical interaction by observing two individuals synchronizing rhythms. We found that the interbeat intervals between individuals exhibit scale-free cross-correlations, i.e., the next beat played by an individual is dependent on the entire history (up to several minutes) of their partner’s interbeat intervals. To explain this surprising observation, we introduce a general stochastic model that can also be used to study synchronization phenomena in econophysics and physiology. The scaling laws found in musical interaction are directly applicable to audio production.
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.1324142111