Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Why Does Classical Music Make You Smarter? (The songs are hidden in higher mathematics)
Pajamas Media ^ | 04/24/2013 | David Goldman

Posted on 04/24/2013 10:51:36 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

click here to read article


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-71 next last
To: SeekAndFind

>>A touch-sensitive electric piano with sounds sampled from good acoustic instruments, suitable for a beginning pupil, costs about as much as a video game station. <<

I just saw one in Frys for $35 — I almost bought it.

I played trumpet and still play flute. Playing a musical instrument can be a very relaxing and fun thing to do. If you do play you know what I mean. If not it is almost impossible to explain how good making music makes you feel.


21 posted on 04/24/2013 11:08:19 AM PDT by freedumb2003 (LBJ declared war on poverty and lost. Barack Obama declared war on prosperity and won. /csmusaret)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
In an essay for First Things titled “The Divine Music of Mathematics,” just released from behind the pay wall, I show that the first intimation of higher-order numbers in mathematics in Western thought comes from St. Augustine’s 5th-century treatise on music.

I believe this is factually incorrect. Pythagoras had all sorts of ideas about the relationship between music, the universe and higher thought.

He died around 500 BC, about 1000 years before Augustine.

22 posted on 04/24/2013 11:08:30 AM PDT by Sherman Logan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
Where the math is really obvious is in the late medieval and early Renaissance music.

DuFay, Ockeghem, and Dunstable seem to have spent most of their spare time squeezing mathematical puzzles into their music.

23 posted on 04/24/2013 11:09:12 AM PDT by AnAmericanMother (Ministrix of ye Chasse, TTGS Ladies' Auxiliary (recess appointment))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: dfwgator; stylecouncilor
Ahhhhh, Bach!

Now that's funny.

s, ping....

24 posted on 04/24/2013 11:09:46 AM PDT by onedoug
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Nice keys.


25 posted on 04/24/2013 11:10:34 AM PDT by grobdriver
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: James C. Bennett
My daughter studied Indian Classical music in college.

One of their assignments was to go to local concerts. She heard through a friend that a sitar player at one concert announced to his fellow musicians back stage: "There's a little American girl in the front row counting tala!"

26 posted on 04/24/2013 11:13:03 AM PDT by AnAmericanMother (Ministrix of ye Chasse, TTGS Ladies' Auxiliary (recess appointment))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Learn the circle of fifths and modulation, the moveable do system for scales and memorize key signatures and you’ve already learned enough to build chords, figure out any scale in any key and if you combine it with the time signatures, learn to read music and you’re almost 90% there.

That doesn’t mean you’ll be Beethoven but it does give you enough to understand why some sounds sound great and some really sound horrible and if you’re really really lucky, you’ll have been born with perfect pitch, if not, you can learn relative pitch so you can tell the difference between the sound of E and F#.

There’s a guy who supposedly has a system to teach anyone perfect pitch, reviews were pretty bad for his system. I had the first tape and it boiled down to listening to different note’s timbres but just listening to different chords and notes will give you plenty of information.


27 posted on 04/24/2013 11:19:49 AM PDT by Lx (Do you like it, do you like it. Scott? I call it Mr. and Mrs. Tennerman chili.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Classical music and math: 1901 Fruitgum Company”

Ev’ry time I try to prove I love you,
1,2,3, Red Light, You stop me,.
Baby you ain’t right to stop me.


28 posted on 04/24/2013 11:20:55 AM PDT by USMCPOP (Father of LCpl. Karl Linn, KIA 1/26/2005 Al Haqlaniyah, Iraq)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: left that other site

Is it micro-tonal? Western music has twelve notes to an octave while some eastern music has twenty four or more. It’s really weird to hear if you’re used to Western music.

Playing a sitar is pretty interesting but soon it starts to sound the same. What was that guy’s name, Ravi Shankar??? He used to play for hours; I don’t see how he could stand it.


29 posted on 04/24/2013 11:23:50 AM PDT by Lx (Do you like it, do you like it. Scott? I call it Mr. and Mrs. Tennerman chili.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: AnAmericanMother

Was he still playing with the knives?


30 posted on 04/24/2013 11:24:31 AM PDT by Lx (Do you like it, do you like it. Scott? I call it Mr. and Mrs. Tennerman chili.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: USMCPOP

Very interesting!

I consider myself a musician. I love math. I’ve accomplished a bit of things in my life as far as business and I even played collegiate sports (golf). Out of all the things in my life I only found mystery in math and music.

I constantly push my kids towards math and tell them that “everything can be solved with math”. I likewise would love to push them towards music but do not push them to the level I do with math.

With all that I have done in life music seems to be the most difficult thing I have ever undertaken.


31 posted on 04/24/2013 11:32:27 AM PDT by METARZAN
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Too much sax and violins for me.


32 posted on 04/24/2013 11:34:31 AM PDT by Walmartian (I'm their leader. Which way did they go?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MNDude
Very interesting. I wonder if there’s such thing as a type of music that makes you dumber.

Like the tuneless howling of the Imam from a minaret?

33 posted on 04/24/2013 11:41:24 AM PDT by Ice Cube
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
http://www.weeklystandard.com/print/articles/irish-setter-dad_555534.html?page=2

P.J. O'Rourke's response to the old Yale perfessor Amy Chua who wrote "The battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother". Very funny.

OTOH, I find that classical music is a favorite of mine, back to childhood. It does have the power to reach inside you and pull out emotions and a higher thought process.

34 posted on 04/24/2013 11:41:43 AM PDT by texas booster (Join FreeRepublic's Folding@Home team (Team # 36120) Cure Alzheimer's!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: EveningStar; .30Carbine; 1cewolf; 1rudeboy; 31R1O; ADemocratNoMore; afraidfortherepublic; ...

Dear EveningStar,

Thanks for the ping! Very interesting article!

Classical Music Ping List ping!

If you want on or off this list, let me know via FR e-mail.

Thanks,

sitetest


35 posted on 04/24/2013 11:43:36 AM PDT by sitetest (If Roe is not overturned, no unborn child will ever be protected in law.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: Ice Cube
Like the tuneless howling of the Imam from a minaret?

That would be Kor-rap music.

36 posted on 04/24/2013 11:44:12 AM PDT by N. Theknow (Kennedys=Can't drive, can't ski, can't fly, can't skipper a boat, but they know what's best for you.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

The horses appear to appreciate it . . . and I’m constantly battling with people who think horses should listen to country/western.


37 posted on 04/24/2013 11:45:58 AM PDT by 1rudeboy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

38 posted on 04/24/2013 11:47:30 AM PDT by Pharmboy (Democrats lie because they must.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

She has lovely but small...hands.

39 posted on 04/24/2013 11:51:08 AM PDT by Pharmboy (Democrats lie because they must.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: a fool in paradise

Well, then Telemann about it!


40 posted on 04/24/2013 11:51:36 AM PDT by Revolting cat! (Bad things are wrong! Ice cream is delicious!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-71 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson