LISTEN BY NUMBERS: MUSIC AND MATHS

Do you think there is a connection between music and mathematics? The French baroque composer, Rameau, declared in 1722 that only with the aid of mathematics his ideas became clear.

So, is it crazy to try to connect the creative art of music with the logic of mathematics? Certainly the grammar of music – rhythm and pitch – has mathematical foundations.

Many people react angrily to such a claim, believing music should be so much richer and more emotional than mathematics and that making such a comparison is to misunderstand what music is truly about. However, as a professor of mathematics, I think this argument misunderstands what mathematics is truly about.

Mathematics is about structure and pattern. As we’ve explored the universe of numbers, we’ve discovered strange connections and stories about numbers that excite and surprise us. Just as music is not about reaching the final chord, mathematics is about more than just the result. It is the journey that excites the mathematician. I read and reread proofs in much the same way as I listen to a piece of music: understanding how themes are established, mutated, interwoven and transformed. What people don’t realise about mathematics is that it involves a lot of choice: not about what is true or false, but from deciding what piece of mathematics is worth ‘listening to’.

For me, what really binds our two worlds is that composers and mathematicians are often attracted by the same structures for their compositions. Bach’s Goldberg Variations depend on games of symmetry to create the progression from theme to variation. Schoenberg’s 12-tone system, which influenced so many of the major composers of the 20th century is underpinned by mathematical structure.

Rhythm depends on arithmetic, harmony draws from basic numerical relationships, and the development of musical themes reflects the world of symmetry and geometry. As Stravinsky once said, ‘The musician should find in mathematics a study as useful to him as the learning of another language is to a poet. Mathematics swims seductively just below the surface.’

by Marcus du Sautoy - Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science and Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford.

 

(Adapted from the Guardian website)