Mathematical methods, specifically Network Theory, are used here to investigate musical complexity as a marker of stylistic development. Proceeding from the premise that an 18th century classical composer's musical language becomes more complex over time, we suggest that this method, insofar as it quantifies and graphically represents complexity, could be a useful tool for exploring musical style, compositional maturity, and also issues of authorship or chronology. As a preliminary study of this concept, we chose a sample of six minuet movements (and one scherzo) from Haydn's string quartets from throughout his career, and analysed the melodic content of the first violin part. This intentional limitation to a small sample of works in a single genre whose authorship and chronology are beyond question allows us to focus on fundamental issues of musical content, and how that might develop and change during the period in which the works were composed.

数学方法，特别是网络理论，在这里被用来研究音乐的复杂性，作为风格发展的标志。从 18 世纪古典作曲家的音乐语言随着时间的推移变得更加复杂的前提出发，我们建议这种方法，只要它量化并以图形方式表示复杂性，可能是探索音乐风格、作曲成熟度以及其他问题的有用工具。作者身份或年表。作为对这一概念的初步研究，我们从海顿整个职业生涯的弦乐四重奏中选取了六个小步舞曲（和一个谐谑曲）作为样本，并分析了第一小提琴部分的旋律内容。