A system approach to music

Abstract

This paper furnishes a system approach to the structure of musical works. First the musical composition is identified as a system both in the sense of the General System Theory and some more sophisticated system theories. Several mechanisms underlying the history of musical genres and forms are discussed in the second part. Next, the musical work is understood as an open system, based on the distinction between structurally stable musics and morphogenetic musics. A classification of music against the background of a cusp‐catastrophe model is given in section four. Finally, the aesthetic relevance of the system approach to music is emphasized.

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