some raw material on mathematical and musical beauty
TRANSCRIPT
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Some raw material onmathematical and musical beauty
Wilfrid Hodges
Queen Mary, University of London
November 2007
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Deryck Cooke, The Language of Music (1959)
• The purely ‘architectural’ aspect is found in a limited
number of contrapuntal works built out of material
which is not emotionally expressive. (p. 33)
• Form . . . is simply expression, and . . . technique on any
scale is simply the means of achieving this expression.
(p. 220)
• If music does express spiritual or mystical intuitions,
it must do so through the emotional terms of musical
language. (p. 272)
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Cooke’s view is that apart from ‘a limited number of
contrapuntal works’, music achieves its aims through using
certain configurations of notes to express emotions.
He sees little role for mathematical patterns in music.
Beauty is in the ear of the listener.
My ear is totally different from Cooke’s.
For me, geometry is part of the fabric of music,
whether or not it expresses emotions.
This talk will present some examples. (For copyright
reasons some scores are missing in this file.)
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1. Brahms, ’Ihr habt nun Traurichkeit’, Ein Deutsches
Requiem, The Schutz Choir of London, The London
Classical Players, cond. Roger Norrington, soprano Lynne
Dawson
Figure repeated at half speed in lower voice, for narrative
reason
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2. Elgar, Violin Concerto, St Louis Symphony Orchestra
cond. Leonard Slatkin, violin Pinchas Zukerman
Motif geometrically transformed in various ways, some
iterated, giving a unity to the work
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3. Messiaen, ‘Regard du Fils sur le Fils’, Vingt Regards sur
l’Enfant-Jesus, John Ogdon
Rhythm repeated in ratio 2:3, almost inaudible and
significant chiefly for the composer
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4. Byrd, ‘Non vos relinquam’, Motets, Durham Cathedral
Choir cond. James Lancelot
Motif repeated several times rising in pitch, to represent
ascension; clear to performers if not to listener
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5. Josquin Desprez, ‘Huc me sydereo’, Orlando Consort
The earliest unambiguous example of pictorial use of the
musical time-pitch plane, here to depict a meteor shower
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6. Schubert, ‘Der Tod und das Madchen’, Bryn Terfel, acc.
Malcolm Martineau
Pincer movement in the musical plane
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7(a). Paganini, 24th Capriccio for Violin, Salvatore Accardo
7(b). Rachmaninov, Variation 18, Rhapsody on a Theme of
Paganini, St Louis Symphony Orchestra cond. Leonard
Slatkin, piano Abbey Simon
The later and more popular tune is the earlier one with
pitches reversed in the musical plane (plus some slight
adjustments)
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8. Berio, Cries of London, Swingle II
Though rotations in the musical plane are musically
meaningless, horizontal transvections occur naturally
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9. Mozart, Clarinet Quintet, synthesizer
The opening bars are almost perfectly symmetrical under
pitch reversal
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10. Handel, Hallelujah Chorus, Messiah, The Scholars
Baroque Ensemble
Motif symmetrical under time reversal, used as symbol of
power as in large symmetrical civic buildings
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11. Janacek, ‘Veruju’, Glagolitic Mass, Royal Philharmonic
cond. Rudolf Kempe
One of the very few examples of a figure symmetrical under
the full Klein 4-group. Why here, and why so rare
elsewhere?
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12. Rimsky-Korsakov, Suite from the Golden Cockerel,
Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra cond. Loris Tjeknavorian
For narrative reasons the composer uses the contrast
between a motif with an orientation and its mirror image
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Reference
• Wilfrid Hodges, ‘The geometry of music’, in Music and
Mathematics: From Pythagoras to Fractals, ed. John Fauvel
et al., Oxford University Press 2003, pp. 91–111.
The proceedings of a conference on music and mathematics,
Oxford 1991. The book contains many further references.
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