Features
- Cover Type: Paperback with 284 pages
- Published by: University Of Chicago Press May 1, 2006
- Written in: English
- ISBN 10 Number: 0226729540
- ISBN 13 Number: 978-0226729541
-
Book Dimensions:
8.9 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
- Weighs: 1 pounds
From Publishers Weekly
Music and mathematics, Rothstein notes, have been companions throughout history, from Pythagorean mysticism relating sounds to numbers, to astronomer Johannes Kepler's claim that his laws of planetary motion revealed a music of the spheres, to the mathematical thinking that pervades musical compositions by Arnold Schoenberg, Iannis Xenakis and John Cage. In an elegantly written, original inquiry, the
New York Times's chief music critic argues that the links between these two fields, far from being accidental, reveal profound underlying similarities. Both music and mathematics, Rothstein says, use abstraction, proportion, comparison, transformation and metaphor to create grand unifying structures out of small details in their quest for timeless forms, hidden order and beauty. Rothstein's uncanny insights in this intensive exploration will startle and reward the literate layperson, including those with no technical knowledge of either music or math. Illustrated.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
Rothstein, who is both a mathematician and a musician, is currently the chief music critic for the
New York Times. In moving back and forth between the worlds of music and mathematics, he has frequently encountered the generally accepted notion that there are many connections between the two. This book attempts "to explain why these connections are far from accidental or incidental and why they reveal something profound about the nature of each activity." Rothstein writes for the lay reader: this decidedly nonmathematical reviewer found the examples from mathematics quite accessible, and the music discussion could be grasped even without the explanatory figures. However, each section of the book focuses mainly on one field or the other, and, for all his clarity, Rothstein does not ever really succeed in drawing them together. Still, academic and greater public libraries should have a sufficient number of patrons who share Rothstein's dual interests, and they will find much to ponder and enjoy in this book.?Martin Jenkins, Wright State Univ. Lib., Dayton, Ohio
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Reader Reviews
This review is from: Emblems of the Mind (Paperback)
This book has a lot of interesting information about both music and mathematics. But it seems to me to be two different books interleaved with each other in one volume. The mathematics covers factors and primes, the Golden Ratio, and infinity; none of these are related to music by the author. The music analyzes by what seems to be traditional methods musical compositions such as Beethoven's Appassionata Sonata and Chopin's Prelude in A minor Op 28 No. 2 (I call this one "The Monster"). The analysis of the latter is faulty in one respect: at the climax the author says that the chords can't be named; I can name the main chord: a D# diminished chord with a minor seventh on top; actually the piece reminds me of someone trying to be funny by ending a D major piece with a sour-note D# in the melody. There is relationship between music and mathematics; for example, the structure of the scale and that the A of G major differs from the A in C major in just intonation by the ratio of 81/80; or the relationship of rhythm styles with numbers in binary notation. But none of this is mentioned. To me this is two separate books; interesting to read (especially on Chopin's monstrous prelude above) but still with a split identity.
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