Chapter 2

DISCUSSION

Musics and Mathematics: A Brief Overview of Their Interaction

Mathematics and music come from separate world, mathematics from the world of

science and music from world of art. But these two kind different world of knowledge were

strongly connected. In his book, Benson (2007) said that since the time of the Ancient

Greeks, connection between mathematics and music in particular aspects such as: from

harmony and number theory, to musical patterns and group theory has been written. There are

linking aspects of both music and mathematics, in a particular way Don and Walker (2013)

proposed “that as a subject of science, one of mathematics goal is to understand everthing

that we experience, on the other hand music is the essential part of human experience.

Mathematics has been described as the science of patterns, and we shall see that there are

many patterns in musics that can be described with mathematics” (p. 1) Mathematics has also

been described as the language of the universe, and music itself has been described in such a

poetic way. In fact, connections between these two subjects go back thousand of years. Like

mathematics, music has been an integral aspect of cultures throughout history (Bhat, B.A.,

Wani, M.A., Nusrat, & Anees, S.U.M. (2015).

In the time of the ancient Greeks, mathematics and music were strongly connected.

Music was considered as a strictly mathematical discipline, handling with number

relationships, number and proportions. Music is a science, it must have certain rules: they

must be removed by a clear principle and that principle cannot be known without the help of

mathematics, this idea encourage the expert proposed in quadrivium Garland (in Michael

Beer, 2008) states that music was placed on the same level of arithmetic, geometric, and
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astronomy. This interpretation totally neglected the creative aspect of music performance.

Music was the science of sound and harmony.

Mathematics can describe many phenomena and concepts in music. As Shah (2010)

argued that by using mathematical technics, such as intuition, logic and reasoning

mathematicians can explain other phenomena of other subject. Mathematics explains how

strings vibrate at certain frequencies, and sound waves are used to describe these

mathematical frequencies. (Shah, 2010) states that, “instruments are mathematical; cellos

have a particular shape to resonate with their strings in a mathematical fashion. Modern

technology used to make recordings on a compact disc (CD) or a digital video disc (DVD)

also rely on mathematics” (p.7).

Music itself is indeed very mathematical, and mathematics is inherent to many basic

ideas in music theory. Group theory, another area of pure mathematics, describes the ways

that sets and pitches relate and how they can be transformed from one to another. It is in this

sense that pure mathematics provide a convenient frame work for the music theorist to

communicate good ways of hearing a work of music. Music theorists, like experts in other

disciplines, use mathematics to develop, express and communicate their ideas. Fiore (2007)

argued that music theory is very useful for listener, music composer, artist, classical pianist,

jazz musician as well as non western music.

Historical Connection Between Music and Mathematics

This section briefly explains the historical connection between mathematics and

music. The two disciplines have been interlinked throughout history since Ancient Greek

academics began their theoretical study; since antiquity, mathematicians have often been

music theorists. The fascination that mathematicians have with music will then be discussed.
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Music Theorists and Mathematicians : Are They One and Same?

Many mathematicians are interesting in music and give great contributions in

historical development of music especially all around the world.

In a review of Joseph (in Shah, 2010) regarding to the contributions of Greece academics in

the development of knowledge about music, philosophy, biology, chemistry, physics,

architecture and many other disciplines:

For about a millennium, from 600 BC, Ancient Greece was one of the worldʼs leading

civilizations. The ideas and knowledge produced at this time have had a lasting

influence on modern western civilizations. The “Golden Age” in Greek antiquity was

approximately 450 BC, and much of what constitutes western culture today began its

invention then. Brilliant Greece academics contributed a wealth of knowledge about

music, philosophy, biology, chemistry, physics, architecture and many other

disciplines. (p. 9)

Papadopoulos (2014) argued that three of the Greece’s academics that give great

contribution when detailing the connection between mathematics and music were Pythagoras,

Plato and Aristotle. Pythagoras was instrumental in the origin of mathematics as purely a

theoretical science. In fact, the theories and results that were developed by Pythagoreans were

not intended for practical use or for applications. The history of music involved the vital role

of the expert, in his module, Papadopoulos (2014) argues that Plato was a Pythagorean who

lived after the Golden Age of Ancient Greece. Plato believed that mathematics was the core

of education. He founded the first university in Greece, the Academy. From antiquity, many

famous Greek mathematicians attended Platoʼs university. He continues in his module that

Aristotle, the teacher of Alexander the Great, is an example of a famous student of Plato.

Shah (2010) stated “Aristotle was a man of great genius and the father of his own school. He

studied every subject possible at the time. His writings had vast subject matter, including
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music, physics, poetry, theatre, logic, rhetoric, government, politics, ethics and zoology” (p.

12). Itʼs been previously stated that the ideas and works of the Ancient Greeks were

influential and had had a lasting effect throughout history. Papadopoulos (2014) stated that

“Those of music and mathematics were no different. The four way division of mathematics,

which detailed music should be studied as part of mathematics, lasted until the end of the

middle ages (approximately 1500 AD) in European culture” (p. 12).

A natural question now arises: why are these ancient figures so important in understanding

the relationship between mathematics and music? The answer is simple. Everything which

has interconnecting to one another in the nature will be easily to indentify, as well as

Papadopoulos (2014) said that in their ancient time they studied mathematics and music as an

integral part. Because they consider music is the part of mathematics.

Why are Mathematicians so Fascinated by Music Theory

Rameau the greatest French music theorist was giving clearly and accurately reason

why mathematicians were very interesting with music theory (Papadopoulos, 2014):

Music is a science which must have determined rules. These rules must be drawn

from a principle which should be evident, and this principle cannot be known without

the help of mathematics. I must confess that in spite of all the experience I have

acquired in music by practicing it for a fairly long period, it is nevertheless only with

the help of mathematics that my ideas became disentangled and that light has

succeeded to a certain darkness of which I was not aware before. (p. 11)

As researcher expressed previously that mathematicians have been attracted to the

study of music theory since the Ancient Greeks, because music theory and composition

require an abstract way of thinking and contemplation as stated by Olson (in Shah, 2010). He

continued explained that the methode of thinking used in music is identically to that required

for pure mathemtical thought.

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This kind of fascination was raised up, it is reasonable while music theorist usually

used mathematical simbols, diagrams and other tools of mathematics, it was proposed by

Papadopoulos (2014) that the Cartesian graph used to represent music was used by music

theorists before they were introduced into geometry. In the other hands Olson (in Shah, 2010)

argued in fact, many musical scores of twentieth century musicians have many forms that are

similar to mathematical diagrams. At the beginning of a piece of music, after the clef is

marked, the time signature is marked by a fraction on the music staff. He continued that

common time signatures include 2/4, 3/4, 4/4. and 6/8. The denominator of the fraction, is the

unit of measure, and used to denote pulse. The numerator indicates the number of these units

or their equivalent included in the division of a measure2. Groups of stressed and relaxed

pulses in music are called meters. The meter is also given in the numerator of the time

signature. Common meters are 2, 3, 4, 6, 9, 12 which denote the number of beats or pulses in

the measure. For example, take the time signature 3/4. Each measure is equivalent to three

(information from the numerator) quarter notes (information from the denominator). The

count in each measure would be: 1, 2, 3. The 1 is the stressed pulse, while the 2 and 3 are

relaxed. The time signature 3/4 is common in waltzes. And there are several reason why

mathematicians were interested in music theory and instead as well.

The Mathematics of Music

The discussion in previous section emphasized that mathematics can describe many

phenomena and concepts in music. This section will discuss how mathematics used to

explain the phenomena in music. There will be discussion for Phytagorean scales. Before the

introduction of the tempered scale, different scales existed and were used for different kinds

of music. From the perspective of European music, Pythagoras is referred to as the first music

theorist, so it is fitting to discuss his Pythagorean scale. The move away from Pythagorean
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scales and tuning will then be discussed. And finally we will discussed the addition of

Rameau to the discovery of Phytagoras.

Phytagoras and Theory of Music Interval

We like to think of an interval as the “distance” between two pitches. But this

understanding no longer exist by this explanation. Wright (2009) explained that the most

basic interval is the octave. If one hears the pitches 440 Hz (A4) and 880 Hz, one recognizes

the latter as being one octave above the former, hence 880 Hz is A5. The pitch 220 is one

octave below A4, hence is A3. The difference between the frequencies of A3 and A4 is 220,

while the difference between the frequencies of A4 and A5 is 440, yet the intervals are the

same – one octave. As a conclusion “this reflects the fact that the octave corresponds to a

factor of 2, and that an interval should not be associated with the difference between the two

frequencies, but rather the ratio between the two frequencies” (Wright, 2009, p. 45).

The way our ears hear the sound is not just a simply way. Taschner (2007) explained

that when human ears hear a a note, they are really realize a periodic sequence of vibrations;

sound enters our ears as a sine wave, which compresses the air in a period pattern. In addition

the frequency of this sine wave is defined by the frequency at which maximum and minimum

air pressure alternate per second (Taschner, 2007). Sounds, including notes played by

instruments, do not reach our ears in their pure, basic sound wave. Instead, the noteʼs sound

wave is accompanied with overtones. An alternative interpretation that Taschner (2007)

suggest an overtone is a note whose frequency is an exact multiple of the fundamental.

Sounds produced by music has an interval, A musical interval is the ratio of the

frequency of the sound waves of two tones, a fundamental and a second tone that is either a

step lower or higher in pitch (Taschner, 2007). These two notes would be sounded together,

or immediately after each other. Pierce (in Shah, 2010) stated that the most basic musical
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interval is the prime, where the fundamental note is played in comparison to itself P The ratio

of this frequency obviously 1:1.

The next interval (second most basic), is the octave, where the fundamental relates to

a second note that has double the frequency of the fundamental. The ratio of the fundamental

and second note when they differ by an octave is 1:2. This second note, is an overtone. The

higher note of the octave is now the new fundamental note. As Taschner (2007) said that all

overtones related to this new fundamental, would still be the overtones of the original

fundamental. After the prime interval, the octave is the second most consonant (pleasant

sounding) interval, because our human ears hear all sounds generated by these two tones as

belonging together wrote by Pierce (in Shah, 2010). When sounded together or right after

each other, the two tones of an octave sound the same to our ears; the two notes are heard to

be equivalent, if the frequency of one is double the frequency of the other. Taschner (2007)

argued “From any fundamental, the second note that makes a musical interval must sound at

least as high as this first tone, but sound lower than its octave” (p. 28).

Pythagoras found the relation of musical intervals with ratios of integers, by using the

interval of the fifth to create further intervalshad. According to the Lanzo & Scarfò (2015)

explained that one day Pythagoras passed in front of the workshop of a blacksmith, and he

realized that the sound of hammers on anvils was sometimes consonant, and sometimes

dissonant. Intrigued, he entered the workshop, you did show the hammers, and found that

those who rang in consonance had a specific weight ratio. For example, if one of the

hammers weighed twice of the other, they produced distant sounds an octave. If one of the

hammers weighed one and a half the other, they produced distant sounds a fifth (the interval

between the Do and Sol). Back home, Pythagoras did some experiments with nerve ox live,

to see if any similar rule was worth to the sounds generated by string instruments, such as the

lira. Surprisingly, the rule was even the same, for example, if one of the cords had double
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length of the other, they produced distant sounds an octave. If one of the strings was long one

and half the other, they produced sounds a distant fifth.

Taschner (2007) stated that Phytagoras discovered that dividing a single string (on an

instrument called the monochord) into ratios of small whole numbers, such as 1:2, 2:3, 3:4,

etc., generated musical intervals. These intervals, when used melodically, were capable of

moving listeners to tears and speaking directly to their souls. This insight is laid down in the

wonderful words of one of his pupils, P hilolaus: “The soul is the numerical harmony of the

body, and the soul’s relationship to the body is the same as the one existing between notes

and the musical instrument that produces them.”

The Move Away from Phytagorean Scales

Scales that used by Phytagoras even contributed much for theory of music it was quite

complicated. Papadopoulos (2014) stated that the Pythagorean scale is one such example that

has been discussed in great detail in the previous section. An example of another scale, is one

made by Aristoxenus (4 BC). Aristoxenus was an Ancient Greek philosopher and a student of

Aristotle. He wrote about philosophy, ethics and music. While much of his work has been

lost, parts of one musical treatise Elements of Harmony have been found. Aristoxenus created

a systematic theory of scales that consist of tetrachords. Tetrachords are scales that are made

up of four notes, which correspond to different divisions of fourths by tones and semitones

These were short scales, but longer ones could easily be created by concatenating tetrachords

(Papadopoulos, 2014, p.p. 6-11).

Scales are also a musical language because the creation of the scales is a very

arithmetic process as Papadopoulos (2014) stated that while the composition and creation of

scales has differed, scales have always been considered the building blocks of musical

composition (at least in tonal music, pretwentieth century European music). Many old music

compositions are based on scales, and often contain fragments of scales in various forms.
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After the Renaissance, however, Western European classical music began to use a very

limited number of scales. The result of one study (Lezard, 2008 ) showed that since the

eighteenth century, thereʼs been general acceptance of the tempered scale. There are two

forms of the tempered scale: major and minor (para.6). The tempered scale divides the octave

into twelve equal intervals. Two semitones make up a tone, and the distance between any two

tones is a semitone. Each unit in a tempered scale is a tempered semitone, with a value of

12√2. Any two major scales (or two minor scales) are simply transpositions of each other on

the set of pitches. The piano is an instrument which uses equal tempered scales.

While equal tempered scale still speculative at that time, whereas it is very

advantageous which is evident since it has dominated Western music for two hundred years.

An equal tempered scale is perfectly suited to the design of a keyboard. Another founding

through study by Pierce (in Shah, 2010) showed that these scales follow the same pattern,

regardless of key allowing composers the freedom to modulate and transpose up or down

without a change in the musical intervals.In comparison, Pythagorean scales (and others

before the introduction of equal temperament), maintained exact integer-ratio proportions to

different intervals.

While this equal temperament scale advantegous but Professor Ross W. Duffin

eloquently argues against equal temperament in his book How equal temperament ruined

harmony and why you should care (Rasch, 2008). Professor Ross W. Duffin claims that equal

temperament was a technique that began to be used two hundred years ago to attract people to

play an instrument, yet in using the tempered scale, quality and depth in the music is lost. A

composition will sound flat. Prof Duffin argues in fact, that equal temperament was created to

supply an expanding middle class population with instruments simple and easy enough that

they could play themselves. Furthermore, Lezard (2008, para.6) argued that the

compositional geniuses of two centuries ago, did not support this move in tuning system. On
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the other hand Taschner (2007) stated that Bach wrote The Well-Tempered Clavier for

irregular temperaments, working in a wide variety of keys. Instruments in this work would

not need to be retuned when you change keys. The mystical charm of many keys give this

masterpiece depth far beyond that of compositions using equal temperament. In 1766, Bach

was still having split key pianos (with seventeen keys) imported. Haydn is another example

of a seventeenth century composer who shunned equal temperament, since in 1802 (Lezard ,

2008, para.6).

Rameau Adds to the Discovery of Phytagoras

Knowledge will always evolved in its aspect from the time to time. Inventions in the

past will be a pioneer for future discoveries. Papadopoulos (2014) stated that “ Two centuries

after Pythagoras, French the composer and theoretician Jean-Philippe Rameau made an

important connection between music as an expressive, creative art, and mathematics as a

rigorous, deductive science. Rameau used Pythagorasʼ discovery about relationship between

musical intervals and pairs of integers and enhanced it. Rameau gave a musical context to the

entire sequence of positive integers emphasized Pierce (in Shah, 2010).

Rameau believed that the infinite sequence of integers is elegantly contained in

nature, masked as a series of frequencies as (Papadopoulos, 2014) explained “when a rich

body such as a voice or instrument vibrates, a long periodic variation of air pressure is

created. The vibration, which is an acoustic wave, increases and multiplies. When this

acoustic sound wave hits our eardrums, we hear a musical note. When a musical note, for

example one that is produced by a vibrating string, is usually a superposition of a

fundamental tones and overtones” (p. 71). The frequency of overtones is called the harmonic

frequency (Papadopoulos, 2014, P. 72).

Rameauʼs theoretical work in sound theory is extremely important, but he could not

have made such discoveries without the work of previous and other academics. In particular,
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he used the work of French mathematician Joseph Sauveur (Papadopoulos, 2014, P. 71).

Sauveur researched the correlation between frequency and musical pitch. Sauveur understood

the phenomen of harmonics in music before Rameau, but it was Rameau who used it as the

basis of his music teaching in his Traité de lʼHarmonie Réduite à Ses Principes Naturels

which was explained clearly by Pierce ( in Shah, 2010, P. 35). The existence and the

properties of harmonic sequence is the based of all the theories was developed by Rameau.

Rameau as the succesor of Phytagoras contributed for new light on music theory and

build a strong foundation where the next generation could utilize it for their own research.

Jacques Chailley, a famous musicologist and professor of music at the University of Paris,

said of Rameau and Pythagoras: “In 2500 years of written history, music has perhaps only

known two genuine theoreticians and what the others did was only repackage or patch up

their propositions. The first one in the VIst century before our era, was the fabulous

Pythagoras. The other one died in Paris in 1764: this was Jean-Philippe Rameau”

(Papadopoulos, 2014, P. 71).