Music and mathematics
While music theory has no
History
Though ancient Chinese, Indians, Egyptians and Mesopotamians are known to have studied the mathematical principles of sound,
From the time of
Time, rhythm, and meter
Without the boundaries of rhythmic structure – a fundamental equal and regular arrangement of
The elements of musical form often build strict proportions or hypermetric structures (powers of the numbers 2 and 3).[9]
Musical form
Musical form is the plan by which a short piece of music is extended. The term "plan" is also used in architecture, to which musical form is often compared. Like the architect, the composer must take into account the function for which the work is intended and the means available, practicing economy and making use of repetition and order.[10] The common types of form known as binary and ternary ("twofold" and "threefold") once again demonstrate the importance of small integral values to the intelligibility and appeal of music.[11][12]
Frequency and harmony
A
Succeeding superoctaves are pitches found at frequencies four, eight, sixteen times, and so on, of the fundamental frequency. Pitches at frequencies of half, a quarter, an eighth and so on of the fundamental are called suboctaves. There is no case in musical harmony where, if a given pitch be considered accordant, that its octaves are considered otherwise. Therefore, any note and its octaves will generally be found similarly named in musical systems (e.g. all will be called doh or A or Sa, as the case may be).
When expressed as a frequency bandwidth an octave A2–A3 spans from 110 Hz to 220 Hz (span=110 Hz). The next octave will span from 220 Hz to 440 Hz (span=220 Hz). The third octave spans from 440 Hz to 880 Hz (span=440 Hz) and so on. Each successive octave spans twice the frequency range of the previous octave.
Because we are often interested in the relations or ratios between the pitches (known as intervals) rather than the precise pitches themselves in describing a scale, it is usual to refer to all the scale pitches in terms of their ratio from a particular pitch, which is given the value of one (often written 1/1), generally a note which functions as the tonic of the scale. For interval size comparison, cents are often used.
Common
termExample
nameHz Multiple of
fundamentalRatio of
within octaveCents
within octaveFundamentalA2 110 0Octave A3 220 12000Perfect FifthE4 330 702Octave A4 440 12000Major ThirdC♯5 550 386Perfect FifthE5 660 702G5 770 969Octave A5 880 12000
Tuning systems
There are two main families of tuning systems:
One major difference between equal temperament tunings and just tunings is differences in acoustical beat when two notes are sounded together, which affects the subjective experience of consonance and dissonance. Both of these systems, and the vast majority of music in general, have scales that repeat on the interval of every octave, which is defined as frequency ratio of 2:1. In other words, every time the frequency is doubled, the given scale repeats.
Below are
- Two sine waves played consecutively – this sample has half-step at 550 Hz (C♯ in the just intonation scale), followed by a half-step at 554.37 Hz (C♯ in the equal temperament scale).
- Same two notes, set against an A440 pedal – this sample consists of a "dyad". The lower note is a constant A (440 Hz in either scale), the upper note is a C♯ in the equal-tempered scale for the first 1", and a C♯ in the just intonation scale for the last 1". Phase differences make it easier to detect the transition than in the previous sample.
Just tunings
American composer Terry Riley also made use of the inverted form of it in his "Harp of New Albion". Just intonation gives superior results when there is little or no chord progression: voices and other instruments gravitate to just intonation whenever possible. However, it gives two different whole tone intervals (9:8 and 10:9) because a fixed tuned instrument, such as a piano, cannot change key.[14] To calculate the frequency of a note in a scale given in terms of ratios, the frequency ratio is multiplied by the tonic frequency. For instance, with a tonic of A4 (A natural above middle C), the frequency is 440 Hz, and a justly tuned fifth above it (E5) is simply 440×(3:2) = 660 Hz.
Semitone | Ratio | Interval | Natural | Half Step |
---|---|---|---|---|
0 | 1:1 | unison | 480 | 0 |
1 | 16:15 | semitone | 512 | 16:15 |
2 | 9:8 | major second | 540 | 135:128 |
3 | 6:5 |
minor third | 576 | 16:15 |
4 | 5:4 |
major third | 600 | 25:24 |
5 | 4:3 |
perfect fourth | 640 | 16:15 |
6 | 45:32 | diatonic tritone | 675 | 135:128 |
7 | 3:2 | perfect fifth | 720 | 16:15 |
8 | 8:5 | minor sixth | 768 | 16:15 |
9 | 5:3 | major sixth | 800 | 25:24 |
10 | 9:5 | minor seventh | 864 | 27:25 |
11 | 15:8 | major seventh | 900 | 25:24 |
12 | 2:1 | octave | 960 | 16:15 |
Pythagorean tuning is tuning based only on the perfect consonances, the (perfect) octave, perfect fifth, and perfect fourth. Thus the major third is considered not a third but a ditone, literally "two tones", and is (9:8)2 = 81:64, rather than the independent and harmonic just 5:4 = 80:64 directly below. A whole tone is a secondary interval, being derived from two perfect fifths minus an octave, (3:2)2/2 = 9:8.
The just major third, 5:4 and minor third, 6:5, are a syntonic comma, 81:80, apart from their Pythagorean equivalents 81:64 and 32:27 respectively. According to Carl Dahlhaus (1990, p. 187), "the dependent third conforms to the Pythagorean, the independent third to the harmonic tuning of intervals."
Western common practice music usually cannot be played in just intonation but requires a systematically tempered scale. The tempering can involve either the irregularities of well temperament or be constructed as a regular temperament, either some form of equal temperament or some other regular meantone, but in all cases will involve the fundamental features of meantone temperament. For example, the root of chord ii, if tuned to a fifth above the dominant, would be a major whole tone (9:8) above the tonic. If tuned a just minor third (6:5) below a just subdominant degree of 4:3, however, the interval from the tonic would equal a minor whole tone (10:9). Meantone temperament reduces the difference between 9:8 and 10:9. Their ratio, (9:8)/(10:9) = 81:80, is treated as a unison. The interval 81:80, called the syntonic comma or comma of Didymus, is the key comma of meantone temperament.
Equal temperament tunings
In equal temperament, the octave is divided into equal parts on the logarithmic scale. While it is possible to construct equal temperament scale with any number of notes (for example, the 24-tone Arab tone system), the most common number is 12, which makes up the equal-temperament chromatic scale. In western music, a division into twelve intervals is commonly assumed unless it is specified otherwise.
For the chromatic scale, the octave is divided into twelve equal parts, each semitone (half-step) is an interval of the twelfth root of two so that twelve of these equal half steps add up to exactly an octave. With fretted instruments it is very useful to use equal temperament so that the frets align evenly across the strings. In the European music tradition, equal temperament was used for lute and guitar music far earlier than for other instruments, such as musical keyboards. Because of this historical force, twelve-tone equal temperament is now the dominant intonation system in the Western, and much of the non-Western, world.
Equally tempered scales have been used and instruments built using various other numbers of equal intervals. The 19 equal temperament, first proposed and used by Guillaume Costeley in the 16th century, uses 19 equally spaced tones, offering better major thirds and far better minor thirds than normal 12-semitone equal temperament at the cost of a flatter fifth. The overall effect is one of greater consonance. Twenty-four equal temperament, with twenty-four equally spaced tones, is widespread in the pedagogy and notation of Arabic music. However, in theory and practice, the intonation of Arabic music conforms to rational ratios, as opposed to the irrational ratios of equally tempered systems.[15]
While any analog to the equally tempered
53 equal temperament arises from the near equality of 53 perfect fifths with 31 octaves, and was noted by Jing Fang and Nicholas Mercator.
Connections to mathematics
Set theory
Musical set theory uses the language of mathematical
Abstract algebra
Expanding on the methods of musical set theory, some theorists have used abstract algebra to analyze music. For example, the pitch classes in an equally tempered octave form an abelian group with 12 elements. It is possible to describe just intonation in terms of a free abelian group.[16][17]
Transformational theory is a branch of music theory developed by David Lewin. The theory allows for great generality because it emphasizes transformations between musical objects, rather than the musical objects themselves.
Theorists have also proposed musical applications of more sophisticated algebraic concepts. The theory of regular temperaments has been extensively developed with a wide range of sophisticated mathematics, for example by associating each regular temperament with a rational point on a Grassmannian.
The chromatic scale has a free and transitive action of the cyclic group , with the action being defined via
Numbers and series
Some composers have incorporated the
Category theory
The
Musicians who were or are also notable mathematicians
- Albert Einstein - Accomplished pianist and violinist.
- Art Garfunkel (Simon & Garfunkel) – Masters in Mathematics Education, Columbia University
- Brian May (Queen) - BSc (Hons) in Mathematics and Physics, PhD in Astrophysics, both from Imperial College London.
- Dan Snaith – PhD Mathematics, Imperial College London
- Delia Derbyshire - BA in mathematics and music from Cambridge.
- Jonny Buckland (Coldplay) - Studied astronomy and mathematics at University College London.
- Kit Armstrong - Degree in music and MSc in mathematics.
- Manjul Bhargava - Plays the tabla, won the Fields Medal in 2014.
- Phil Alvin (The Blasters) – Mathematics, University of California, Los Angeles
- Philip Glass - Studied mathematics and philosophy at the University of Chicago.
- Tom Lehrer - BA mathematics from Harvard University.
- William Herschel - Astronomer and played the oboe, violin, harpsichord and organ. He composed 24 symphonies and many concertos, as well as some church music.
- Jerome Hines - Five articles published in Mathematics Magazine 1951–6.
- Donald Knuth - Knuth is an organist and a composer. In 2016 he completed a musical piece for organ titled Fantasia Apocalyptica. It was premièred in Sweden on January 10, 2018
See also
- Computational musicology
- Equal temperament
- Euclid's algorithm)
- Harmony search
- Interval (music)
- List of music software
- Mathematics and art
- Musical tuning
- Non-Pythagorean scale
- Piano key frequencies
- Rhythm
- The Glass Bead Game
- 3rd bridge (harmonic resonance based on equal string divisions)
- Tonality diamond
- Tonnetz
- Utonality and otonality
References
- ^ Reginald Smith Brindle, The New Music, Oxford University Press, 1987, pp. 42–43
- ^ Reginald Smith Brindle, The New Music, Oxford University Press, 1987, p. 42
- ^ Purwins, Hendrik (2005). Profiles of Pitch Classes Circularity of Relative Pitch and Key-Experiments, Models, Computational Music Analysis, and Perspectives (PDF). pp. 22–24.
- ^ Plato (trans. Desmond Lee) The Republic, Harmondsworth Penguin 1974, page 340, note.
- ^ Sir James Jeans, Science and Music, Dover 1968, p. 154.
- ^ Alain Danielou, Introduction to the Study of Musical Scales, Mushiram Manoharlal 1999, Chapter 1 passim.
- ^ Sir James Jeans, Science and Music, Dover 1968, p. 155.
- ^ Arnold Whittall, in The Oxford Companion to Music, OUP, 2002, Article: Rhythm
- ^ "Александр Виноград, Многообразие проявлений музыкального метра (LAP Lambert Academic Publishing, 2013)".
- ^ Imogen Holst, The ABC of Music, Oxford 1963, p. 100
- JSTOR 40247796.
- JSTOR 427754.
- ^ Malcolm, Alexander; Mitchell, Mr (Joseph) (25 May 2018). "A treatise of musick, speculative, practical and historical". Edinburgh : Printed for the author – via Internet Archive.
- ^ Jeremy Montagu, in The Oxford Companion to Music, OUP 2002, Article: just intonation.
- ^ ISBN 0-931340-88-8.
- ^ "Algebra of Tonal Functions".
- ^ "Harmonic Limit".
- ^ Reginald Smith Brindle, The New Music, Oxford University Press, 1987, Chapter 6 passim
- ^ "Eric – Math and Music: Harmonious Connections".
- ^ Mazzola, Guerino (2018), The Topos of Music: Geometric Logic of Concepts, Theory, and Performance
- Dahlhaus, Carl. 1990. Wagners Konzeption des musikalischen Dramas. Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag. Kassel: Bärenreiter. ISBN 9783761845387.
- ISBN 0-12-204055-4
External links
- Axiomatic Music Theory by S.M. Nemati
- Music and Math by Thomas E. Fiore
- Twelve-Tone Musical Scale.
- Sonantometry or music as math discipline.
- Music: A Mathematical Offering by Dave Benson.
- Nicolaus Mercator use of Ratio Theory in Music at Convergence
- The Glass Bead Game Hermann Hesse gave music and mathematics a crucial role in the development of his Glass Bead Game.
- Harmony and Proportion. Pythagoras, Music and Space.
- "Linear Algebra and Music"
- Notefreqs — A complete table of note frequencies and ratios for midi, piano, guitar, bass, and violin. Includes fret measurements (in cm and inches) for building instruments.
- Mathematics & Music, BBC Radio 4 discussion with Marcus du Sautoy, Robin Wilson & Ruth Tatlow (In Our Time, May 25, 2006)
- Measuring note similarity with positive definite kernels, Measuring note similarity with positive definite kernels