Measuring music: David Kraehenbuehl and information theory

Abstract:
In the late 1950s there was an explosion of new, information theory-based scientific ideas, which were gradually filtering into the cultural consciousness of the Western World. First described by Claude Shannon in 1949, information theory is concerned with the information content of a message and the speed and accuracy of its transmission.

This paper explores the way that information theory began to affect the thinking of music theorists and analysts in the 1950s, using the work of Kraehenbuehl as an example.

David Kraehenbuehl was an American composer and theorist, and was one of the founding editors of the Journal of Music Theory in 1957. JMT was one of the first music journals that articles about information theory appeared, and one such article from 1958 was co-written by Kraehenbuehl and Edgar Coons.

Kraehenbuehl followed up these theories by writing a piano piece that was based on information theoretical ideas, called A Formal Triad.

Music’s experiment with information theory forms a small part of Kraehenbuehl’s fascinating life and career, and this paper places the development of information theory as a musical tool in the context of the intellectual development of this great musician and educator.