Explaining music through maths
Maths has always been a big part of music, and I'm not just talking about 'math metal' (or prog rock or whatever label you want to give it). There's long been a school of thought that a number of musicians and composers have used both the "golden ratio" and the Fibonacci Sequence to compose music.
This Binary Universe, an experimental album by Brian Transeau (aka BT), includes a track entitled "1.618" in homage to the golden ratio. The track features musical versions of the ratio and the accompanying video displays various animated versions of the golden mean.
Pearl Drums positions the air vents on its Masters Premium models based on the golden ratio. The company claims that this arrangement improves bass response and has applied for a patent on this innovation.
Now follow me, as we look at how modern day songs can be dissected via maths.
Firstly, let's take a look at how Meatloaf's "Anything for Love" can be broken down in graphical format.
Here's another simple graph, highlighting the simplicity of the Kelis classic.
I wouldn't classify Rick Astley as math metal, but maybe I've been wrong all these years.
Right Said Fred, broken down into percentage of sexy.
Ok, this isn't strictly maths, but it's a flow chart, surely that's very close to maths?
Another, not really maths, but maybe you could call it a bizarro Venn diagram or something.
And finally, Evita for dummies.
That is all. Have a good day.
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the flow chart is awesome, golden ration aside!
There was a whole Pulitzer Prize book on a similar topic by Douglas Hofstadter (?spelling?): “Godel, Escher, Bach: the Eternal Golden Braid” pointing out that the mathematical concept of recursion and transformations was a major part of the work of all three, thus linking maths, visual arts and music.
But the music in this book was defined merely by pitch and time. The “music” you describe contains words, while the physical layout of air vents to improve bass response is physics (which is pretty much applied maths).
[...] Explaining music through maths. [...]
these are fantastic. do you mind if i post one in another place to make ppl laugh? i don’t know the copyright rules of this sorts of stuffs. thanks for the post!