Musica Mathematica - Maths in Music

[Bright Garlick]

Some of my favourite music draws heavily from simple mathematical series. People talk a lot about sacred geometry and sacred art but there is little talk about sacred music which is built upon sacred mathematical series. To me the maths is easy to develop. It's the musical scores I know nothing about. I wish I had half a brain to understand musical notation and the discipline to master it.

Of course maths is at the heart of almost all human music and it's hard to imagine music without maths.

Our friend Awake in a Dream has created some very interesting new scales (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?50899-Mathematical-Questions & http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?51624-New-Creative-Ways-to-Form-Musical-Scales-and-to-Compose-in-General.). One can't help imagine how they might sound in various forms of music.

Of course mathematical series have been well explored in classical, neoclassical and minimalist music. And more recently in various genres of computer generated music.

I for one am very fond of Vivaldi, Bach and Maths Metal. I'd love to know of other forms of mathematical music you've discovered.

Of course so much music is built on repetitive patterns (a form of mathematics). What happens if we kill repetition ? And how does maths fit in with something like improvisation.

In my mind mathematical series and the subsequent sacred qualities that arise from them are very beautiful. Like sacred geometry and sacred art, they are delicately balanced with aspects of light and dark.

Thank god for 10 fingers and 10 toes. Without them the simple vibrations and vibrational repetitions we call music might not exist. At least not as we know it !


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teSiBdFgDOI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIIhC5bAX84

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hy3W-3HPMWg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYvkVqpLX_E

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RENk9PK06AQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oSePXRbW9o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAOTCtW9v0M&list=PL82DAC07854990D7C

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Zsd-K5aKyI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIDuZq7RVAM&list=PLTUlTwlsdlFQhHsAoG7sCxumrigHW-qJk
http://www.last.fm/tag/math%20metal
http://www.last.fm/tag/progressive%20math%20metal
http://www.thewire.co.uk/
http://thewire.co.uk/in-writing/interviews/dennis-johnson_
http://www.chemistryland.com/Metricopoulos/MathBegins/MathBegins.html
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/jun/27/music-mathematics-fibonacci
http://www.schillerinstitute.org/fid_91-96/944_math_music.html
http://plus.maths.org/content/
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=making-music-with-a-mobius-strip
http://plus.maths.org/content/music-primes
http://plus.maths.org/content/music-and-euclids-algorithm
http://plus.maths.org/content/geometrical-music-theory
http://plus.maths.org/content/os/issue35/features/rosenthal/index
http://plus.maths.org/content/os/issue38/interview/index
http://plus.maths.org/content/os/issue4/henwood1/index
http://rateyourmusic.com/list/noname219/top_40_math_metal_artists/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Math_rock
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathcore
http://www.metalstorm.net/awards/categories.php?cat_id=33

[Bright Garlick]

And some more goodies :


http://vimeo.com/25170443

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-FeQsujHaw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aq-CKdT6IG4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMqPlQgHww8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FaEebHT0jY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fj2_Q8xv4Wc&list=PLC8B7DF34B4A03980

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyT4fmzq1dc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5Fkfl2nUTw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zN4PZeBC5B0&feature=youtu.be

[Bright Garlick]

And a few last pieces ... whewww :

https://soundcloud.com/little-dirt/experementia-1


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekxivPZqZWs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcAIpG6OeaE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6J4Ye7nRT0s&list=PL90D333C892969C78

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eu2169itPM0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZjpmCSMht8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBMWniG-s_U&noredirect=1

[dpwishy]

Check out the band Tool. Its all math composed, some really wild stuff. I'd argue their cd "lateralus" is the greatest concept album since dark side of the moon. On their latest cd "10,000 days" there are two songs called Wings for mary part 1 and wings for mary part 2. Both are very intricate songs. They were written about the singers mother who was in a wheel chair for 10,000 days before she died. That she always kept her faith and in the end its what gave the singer his divine faith watching her. The songs are good on their own but there is a way to take those two songs, alone with the last song on the cd and put them together to make one complete song. The timings are written off timing so it sounds like a 8 piece band instead of 4. Really cool stuff.

here is wings for mary part 1

Frd9tjA1qCs

Wings for mary part two

2pr4GYQbHLI

And here is the last song on the cd "viginiti tres". I believe this means 23 in Italian which is the number for synchronicity.

rLOwhigl1bU

The last song is just ambient noise, but if you play this song first and add wings for mary part 1 to the end of it and play those on top of wings for mary part 2, the songs become one song. The band made a hint that the cd could be put together sort of like a puzzle, it took listeners a couple years to figure this out. Wings for mary part 1 and 2 have the same ending, the songs are off timing to sound like an 8 piece instead of 4 but at the end where both songs are the same they come together perfectly for the ending. Pretty mind blowing stuff that they could make 2 equally beautiful songs on their own and also have them come together to be a third even better song. The real intricate stuff doesnt happen until about 6:30 after viginti tres ends and wings for mary part 1 and two play together. You need to be familiar with both songs to truly grasp it or it will just sound like one song, such a masterpiece.

Here is the full sync

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Beautiful songs on their own, even more when they come together. Beautiful lyrics and such an amazing tribute in words and in music to a life lost, enjoy...

In divine friendship,
your brother,
-michael

[Shannow]

I've got two children who are struggling with two sides of the same argument.

One is an intuitive mathematic, and can look and see numbers, and understand them...frustrated that he can't play music.
The other is an intuitive musician, can play anything...and "can't do maths".

I've got the math, and can see the numbers and how they work, the harmonies, can't make the music, and can't explain to math child that music is math, nor to music child that math is music...

I can take metal and wood, and through mathematical equations design and build a wind chime from hardware store equipment to the pentatonic scale from first engineering principles

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b42/akashafamily/IMG_06001-1.jpg

Hopefully I can use the Romanescue broccolli that I recently planted to help with the translation between my two mathematicians.

[Bright Garlick]

Thanks dpwishy - yeah I guess that's why Tool are one of my favourite metal bands. Those tracks you mention are great tracks. Maybe it's the maths that gives them such killer riffs, like in the intros to Stinkfist, Vicarious, Jambi and Sober. Tool use series and repetition so well and so powerfully. What's not to like about em !


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07pLGIgyfjw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUXBCdt5IPg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNojdoI_D_M

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hglVqACd1C8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpQx6DVxzZ4&list=PLD7F79632F2DB7E48

[Bright Garlick]

Shannow I can relate to being in the middle very much. I used to make chimes/didges because it was simple maths also. But damned if I can help you with that bloody fractal brocollli - I'd have no idea how to translate that into music ! Hopefully it will make a fine translator for your family ! Windchimes have an appeal all of their own - especially the right sounding one.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IPbkekv2Hk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p55uyEztZ7w

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIAqqsBMETk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAL4v5CXNtU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOwMDO0-zBw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acTrvMlpuxA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oln1UXIBtC0

Damned Youtube ! ;-)