Re: [microsound] math anxiety

[paul webb <paulwebb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

These examples of relationships between mathematics
and music are showing how certain musical cultures
have been determined my mathematical thought and how
this has coerced composition and instrumental
development. 

Pythagorean tunning system was arbitarily based on
integer relationships and created a scales based on
integers where other musical cultures has scales which
are fractional. The mathmatics applied to music are
cultural artifacts has has effected what we consider
to be musical. Our perceptions of consonance and
dissonance are not stable; until the 14th or 15th
century, the third was considered extremely dissonant
and is not in accord with Pythagorean idea of what is
consonant. It has no experiential reality. Mathematics
has been used to explain musical form and syntax - for
example arriving back in the home key of a sonata. But
in fact, psychological experiments show that
listeners, even very experienced listeners, generally
cannot tell if a piece ends in the "wrong" key. As
long as the key is prepared as if it were the home
key.


paul







--- ph_L th0m50n <hellomynameisphil@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
> >Think of Pythagorean tunning system, which was
> based on the numerical
> ratios of  
> >harmonics of a vibrating string. This relationship
> has been further
> explored by physists and  
> >mathematicians ever since. One of the most
> interesting reads and
> perhaps most influential is 'On the  
> >Sensations of Tone' by Helmholtz. So there is a
> very obvious
> relationship. 
>  
> Not to mention Harry Partch's _Genesis of a Music_.
> 
>
_______________________________________________________________
> Get the FREE email that has everyone talking at
> http://www.mail2world.com
> 


=====
........................ ....................... ....................... ......................
  >>>> interacting machine-music automatons <<<<
  ..........http://www.robotsoftware.co.uk/live.html...........
*********************************************************

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Health - Feel better, live better
http://health.yahoo.com