Re: (OT) Music

As someone who loves both music and mathematics (and certainly William
Blake, my son is named after him!) I'd say that the point is really a
question of competence. You don't have to be a mathematician, or even care
about maths, to be a creator or appreciator of music, and vice versa. It
just so happens that a great many of those people who appreciate music (I'm
thinking classical music here) also tend to be the same sort of people who
can appreciate the beauties of mathematics as well. And certainly
mathematicians have a strong appreciation of music. Maybe the more formal,
"mathematical" language of Rococo and Baroque music, I'd hazard a guess;
though (to use a mathematical image) I don't think the mapping [appreciate
music / appreciate mathematics] is quite 1-to-1. I'd say that more maths
types appreciate music than the other way round, for obvious reasons. You
only need your ears and heart to appreciate music, but rather more than that
to appreciate maths!
Mike
----- Original Message -----
From: "John Cowan" <jcowan@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Monday, June 10, 2002 11:34 AM
Subject: Re: (OT) Music


> Jan van Steenbergen scripsit:
>
> > Nonono! Music involves many factors, is even dominated by them, that
don't play
> > a role of any significance in mathematics, like: aesthetics, taste,
emotion...
>
> I think these are *exactly* the factors that determine what is beautiful
> mathematics, and the criterion of so-called "pure" mathematics is indeed
> beauty.  Of course, this raises the question of what beauty is, to which
> I can do no better than William Blake:  "Exuberance is beauty".
>
> Mathematics is an art, like modern painting, that takes a good deal of
> preliminary training to appreciate.  Nevertheless it is an art.
>
> > If music is really to be reduced to a science, then I would say, that it
is a
> > combination of physics and biochemistry.
>
> And if sculpture is to be reduced to a science, it is also a combination
> of physics and biochemistry....
>
> --
> John Cowan <jcowan@...>     http://www.reutershealth.com
> I amar prestar aen, han mathon ne nen,    http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
> han mathon ne chae, a han noston ne 'wilith.  --Galadriel, _LOTR:FOTR_

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