Thursday, October 27, 2011

Music as Math

I remember thinking as a child when I was learning to play the scales on the piano how much it was like math counting the intervals and such. Then I remembered thinking how foolish I was because I thought that music was an art and it could in no way be a math. Anyway, I just though it was really interesting that music in fact is influenced by math. In fact, it is not only influenced by it, but heavily based on it. When I read this for the first time in the Greek chapter of Fleming, I was presently surprised!

8 comments:

Ravin S said...

Yes, I was also very surprised. I think its really cool how the same music we play today basically originated from some 700 years ago. It is very cool. I also like how they kept building on top of previous musical scales. They eventually added progressions and then multiple voices. I thought it was very cool.

Ravin S said...

Okay it's not letting me post a new post on the blog so I am just going to comment on this one.

I think that the culture and politics of Italy had a huge impact on Dante's Hell. The conflicts between the Guelphs and Ghibellines and then the Whites and Blacks had a huge impact on his circles. For him, traitors were the worst offenders and being against God in anyway was also very bad. You often see Dante's enemies in Hell and they are the subject of the harshest of punishments. If I were to write an Inferno of my own, I would have the murders at the very bottom of Hell. To me, that is the worst sin one could commit, just some thoughts.

alyb said...

I thought this was really cool also, and now thinking about it music isnt the only thing that is influenced by math. I think most of the arts are influenced by it to a certain extent. After taking art class i realized that drawing tunnels and such involves a bit of geometry and even sculpture involves math when you think about it (proportions and such)

Mallory said...

I agree, when I am singing or reading music, I don't really think about math, seeing as we have always been taught that music is an art and math is an academic subject. After reading this, it shows the music really is composed to math and math is used to bring the music's notes together.

Christine Catinis said...

Yeah i also thought it was pretty cool. I've played piano for a long time. When I first learned the basics, my teacher would make me count aloud so ive always linked piano to math for that reason. But isnt it safe to say that math is an art form in itself? i mean the formulas and stuff...yeah haha.

sara pendleton said...

I thought the music as math bit was also very intresting; it makes sence, but I was suprised to find out where octivies came from. It's also intresting to me that the math loving greeks made universal octives based on numbers.

mere said...

It's like what we say every week on this blog, there are so many ties to what we think today to centuries past. I also remember feeling the exact same way when learning to play piano, so I'm not surprised that this is the case.

sara pendleton said...

On Ravin's comment that Italy influnced the Inferno, I think yall are all right. I think that Dante was definatly influenced by Italy, the way Voltaire was influnced by the 30 Years War. In the Renaissance, Italy was divided among fractured city states and I think it's important to consider that Dante's use of vernacular really paved the way for an Italian Identity based on common language.