On this date in 1756, Mozart was born in Salzburg. He was a great musician and composer. Often you hear people talk of the Mozart effect, a theory that listening to Mozart's music can enhance intellect. As an undergraduate, I double-majored in mathematics and music. For many years I have heard about the link between music and mathematics. However, I was not aware of the specific link to mathematics with Mozart and his music. Accounts of Mozart's life describe his interest in mathematics, from his sister noting that Wolfgang "talked of nothing, thought of nothing but figures" during school days. There are accounts of walls of rooms filled with mathematics to mathematical equations jotted in the margins of some of his compositions. He actually calculated his odds of winning a lottery on a composition margin. There are discussions about how Mozart exploited patterns, symmetry, and proportions when creating his musical works.
One of the most amusing things I learned about Mozart and his link to mathematics is his musical composition dice game. Mozart composed a minuet in which many variations were created using dice. For each of the sixteen bars of the minuet, Mozart wrote two choices for the eighth and sixteenth bars of the composition and eleven choices for each of the other bars. The performer was instructed to select randomly the choices for each bar using the dice. Using this approach, a composition with a huge variety of variations was created. Can you guess how many? It is actually 1,518,999,334,332,964 variations. If it took about a half a minute to play each, it would take more than 1,400,000,000 years to play all the variations.
One of the most amusing things I learned about Mozart and his link to mathematics is his musical composition dice game. Mozart composed a minuet in which many variations were created using dice. For each of the sixteen bars of the minuet, Mozart wrote two choices for the eighth and sixteenth bars of the composition and eleven choices for each of the other bars. The performer was instructed to select randomly the choices for each bar using the dice. Using this approach, a composition with a huge variety of variations was created. Can you guess how many? It is actually 1,518,999,334,332,964 variations. If it took about a half a minute to play each, it would take more than 1,400,000,000 years to play all the variations.
So, you think you'd like to test that Mozart effect but think that Mozart would not likely be on your teenager's MP3 playlist? Perhaps you've heard a wonderful symphony like the No. 40 or you've seen The Magic Flute opera (here's a cool scene that shows three ladies taking control and conquering a cool looking dragon), but you still don't think it will work. Well, I found three videos on YouTube that might change your mind. There's a neat video on YouTube of a guitarist playing his rock version of the last movement, Alla Turca (popularly known as the Turkish Rondo) of Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 16 in A major, K. 331. There's also a video of an electric violin version of the Symphony No. 40. However, I bet that you will find the following video of Mozart's Symphony No. 40 on rollerblades to be very interesting!
As posted on YouTube by petroleumfx
References:
http://www3.cs.utwente.nl/~zsofi/mozart/index.html
http://www.math.niu.edu/~rusin/uses-math/music/
http://www.americanscientist.org/template/AssetDetail/assetid/24551
NPR Music's Mathematics of Mozart's Music at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5175371
Image credit: BBC Cambridgeshire
2 comments:
Hi there, me! I don't think you desire to pursue a double major is all that odd. I was a musician while I was studying geological engineering, a very math oriented subject. If you can do it, you should. Don't know if you'll ever see this post or not, but for other readers here is what one instructor of older students has to say - math and music are simply different intelligences (read some Howard Gardner) and some folks are strong in both and some aren't. They are not mutually incompatible but not the close relationship that others have said. This article is about Mozart. Now I'm not Mozart and chances are you aren't either! Does that mean you can't play? Nope. Most can to some degree.
There is certainly a great deal to learn about this topic.
I love all the points you've made.
Here is my web-site ... sales coaching
Post a Comment