Time-series analysis of Music: Perceptual and Information Dynamics

Dean and Bailes (2010) provide a tutorial on the use of time-series analysis in research on music perception and a study of the influence of acoustic factors on real-time perception of music. They illustrate their approach with a detailed case study of an electroacoustic composition by Trevor Wishart. In this commentary, I discuss four aspects of Dean and Bailes’ presentation: first, the importance of focusing on dynamic changes in musical structure; second, the benefits of computer-generated music for research on music perception; third, the need for caution in averaging responses from multiple listeners; and finally, the role of time-series analysis in understanding computational information-dynamic models of music cognition. Submitted 2011 August 5; accepted 2011 August 9.