A Physicist's view on Chopin's \'Etudes

Abstract

We propose the use of specific dynamical processes and more in general of ideas from Physics to model the evolution in time of musical structures. We apply this approach to two \'Etudes by F. Chopin, namely op.10 n.3 and op.25 n.1, proposing some original description based on concepts of symmetry breaking/restoration and quantum coherence, which could be useful for interpretation. In this analysis, we take advantage of colored musical scores, obtained by implementing Scriabin's color code for sounds to musical notation.