Music and Entropy

If a Bach music piece is played backwards the harmony will sound very different.


But how about a piece of "modern" classical music?


Entropy may come from En-tropy, from the Hellenic word Εντροπία, Εν-τροπια, Ενας Τρόπος or One Way, one direction.


Entropy shows the arrow of time.


For example when the lid of a perfume bottle is removed, perfume molecules by collision with air molecules diffuse all over the universe. They could come back to the bottle if each had the right velocity after some time but it is extremely unlikely.


A glass breaking.


Red ink mixing with yellow ink. Very easy. Extremely difficult to re separate them.


Heat moves from warm to cold. It could from cold the warm but it is very unlikely.


The harmony of music made by Bach, Madonna (for example Frozen), Beethoven, Pink Floyd, etc have at least an arrow too. Usually the 9ths, the 7ths, (intervals from bass to melody) are prepared to the human brain by the composer. Then the 3rd is added by some other instrument so that the dissonant interval sounds like a miracle of human ingenuity. [Bach Bass Rules]. An example of preparation is that the melody flirts a somewhat with the note B while the bass is G and then still flirts with B while the bass becomes C. The note E is then added, (the 3rd from bass). So an euphonic C major 7th is created, (from C bass to B if we count all the natural or white notes we have 7 notes, hence interval of 7th).


Attempting the play such music backwards should sound very strange.


Perhaps a "modern" atonal piece of music may sound quite similar played backwards. Is another reason because notes, all notes, black and white are already mixed as there is no definite key or code of which white or which black C D E F G A B are to be used?


Entropy going backwards can be very funny. For example watching a film backwards. First the diffused glass pieces are shown and then they recombine to create a perfect glass that jumps from the floor to the table while water gets into it.


Bibliography:


Bach Bass Rules
https://normanschmidt.net/scores/bachjs-general_bass_rules.pdf


Feynman lectures in Physics


Entropy - George Porter lecture - YouTube
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lj5tqM5GZnQ


Richard Feynman, the distinction of past and future - YouTube
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_Kab9dkDZJY


Conceptual Physics - Hewitt