The Shape of Music

"music is the unknowing exercise of our mathematical faculties." --Gottfried Leibniz

Seed Magazine has a wonderful--albeit long--article written by music theorist Dmitri Tymoczko. In it, he reduces the complex beauty of Western music to "simple" mathematical models. Please note the quotes surrounding the word simple. To Tymoczko, this stuff is no doubt like writing a grocery list on a napkin. To the rest of us, however, the idea alone is enough to make the brow furl.

The thesis attempts to create a visual shape for music. By first reducing notes to numbers, Tymoczko pieces together an architecture for harmony. The essay is thought-provoking and insightful so long as you can push through passages like this:

In this way each of the 88 piano keys is assigned a number less than 12: the "C" keys 48, 60, and 72 are represented by 0, while the "C-sharp" (or "D-flat"), keys 49, 61, and 73 are all represented by 1, and so on. Musicians say that these numbers refer to pitch classes, representing the intrinsic "character" or "color" of the note. Geometrically, pitch classes all live on a circle divided into 12 equal parts, exactly like the face of an ordinary clock--though "12" on this clock refers to "0."

I build a shape for music once, too. Drew and I ate a bag of mushrooms and sat in the back of my old Chevy pick-up and blasted The Wedding Present. If we were to record our conversation, I'm sure it would have been like the Seed article. Exactly like it, but with more pictures.

Read Tymoczko's article in Seed Magazine.