Decoding rhythmic complexity: A nonlinear dynamics approach via visibility graphs for classifying asymmetrical rhythmic frameworks of Turkish classical music

Abstract

The non-isochronous, hierarchical rhythmic cycles (usuls) of Turkish Classical Music (TCM) exhibit emergent temporal structures that challenge conventional rhythm analysis based on metrical regularity. To address this challenge, this study presents a complexity-oriented framework for usul classification, grounded in nonlinear time series analysis and network-based representations. Rhythmic signals are processed through energy envelope extraction, diffusion entropy analysis, and spectral transformations to capture multiscale temporal dynamics. Visibility graphs (VGs) are constructed from these representations to encode underlying structural complexity and temporal dependencies. Features derived from VG adjacency matrices serve as complexity-sensitive descriptors and enable high-accuracy classification (0.99) across 40 usul classes and 628 compositions. Energy envelope-derived graphs provide the most discriminative information, highlighting the importance of amplitude modulation in encoding rhythmic structure. Beyond classification, the analysis reveals self-organizing patterns and signatures of complexity, such as quasi-periodicity, scale-dependent variability, and entropy saturation, suggesting that usuls function as adaptive, nonlinear systems rather than metrically constrained patterns. The topological features extracted from the resulting graphs align with theoretical constructs from complexity science, such as modularity and long-range temporal correlations. This positions usul as an exemplary case for studying structured temporal complexity in cultural artifacts through the lens of dynamical systems. These findings contribute to computational rhythm analysis by demonstrating the efficacy of complexity measures in characterizing culturally specific rhythmic systems.