Music and Maths: What can maths teach us about music?

29th January 2015

"Bach's music was the process of sounding mathematics."

I stumbled across an interesting read on the Guardian's website today. Philosopher Leibniz described listening to music as “The mind counting without being conscious that it is counting.” Cognitive scientists are becoming very intrerested in the way the brian processes musical patterns, as it turns out that there are clear overlaps with music and mathematical ability.

Especially with newer concepts of maths - symmetries, chaos and complexity, mathematicians are always in search of patterns, and music is all about pattern making. For some modern musicians, music and maths have a direct link.

All this was revealed in a lecture on music and symmetry given by Marcus du Sautoy, elements of which can be seen in the video below:

 


Tags:

Learn Through Music, LearnThruMusic, Maths, Music, Music and Maths, Music and Symmetry, Power of mUsic, Science,


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