<< ️(AA) develop a model of musical rhythm and meter based on optimizing the trade-off between human psychological preferences for perceiving repeated patterns in time with a desire for variety and complexity. >>
<< ️By mapping these competing preferences onto analogous quantities in statistical physics, (They) define an effective free energy which is minimized in the grand canonical ensemble. Using a mean field approximation, (They) observe phase transitions in the model from disordered events in time to orderings that closely reproduce those seen in music. >>
<< ️(They) then compare the range of rhythmic characteristics predicted by the model to a data set drawn from compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach, finding generally good quantitative agreement. The results provide a lens through which to study musical rhythm and a method for generatively producing rhythms. >>
Robert St. Clair, Jesse Berezovsky. Rhythm as an ordered phase of sound: How musical meter emerges in a statistical mechanical model. Phys. Rev. E 113, 054116. May 11, 2026.
arXiv: 2604.07476v1 [cond-mat.stat-mech]. Apr 8,2026.
Also: music, sound, jazz, brain, in https://www.inkgmr.net/kwrds.html
Keywords: music, sound, jazz, brain, musical rhythms, perceiving repeated patterns, desire for variety and complexity, phase transitions, disordered events, J.S. Bach.