## Posts Tagged ‘Music’

### Musical Pi, Part 3

March 26, 2008

Finally, the last four tracks in the suite of π-based music, composed by Jon Turner. (See also part 1 and part 2.)

8. Quest 4 Pi 2
MM=288 175mm 2:26
The first part is the same as 1; after the central cadence on C, the harmony no longer changes, and this forms a coda. The guitar continues to shred the rhythm over the final C7sus harmony.
9. Circle of the Great Spirit 2
MM=72 94mm 4/4 5:13
19 digits of π, theme of 1, in 4/4 with variations:
Introduction: 457/0.
Theme: 31848/9 0/5 949/1 3B/6 9186/2 64/1 -4/0 5/0 7/0.
Variation 1: each duration is divided into two half-length durations.
(Variation 2: is track 1 above, CGS1, in triple meter, 3/4.)
Variation 3: durations are divided into 4, creating a rhythmic crescendo typical of classical variations.
Theme: closing anthem.
Coda: 457/0 eight times.

Bonus track(s):

10. Arc Tango X
MM=170 784mm 4/4 18:06
Same as 2, but continues way beyond 160 to 768.
Long jam already, in flux, could go way beyond…
11. Quest 4 Pi complete
MM=288 341mm 4:44
Finished on FZ birthday 07!
1 and 2 continuous.

### Musical Pi, Part 2

March 19, 2008

Following up (at long last) on Musical Pi, Part 1, we present the remaining nine pieces (plus bonus tracks!) in the suite of music based on π, composed by Jon Turner, professor of musical composition at Nazareth. (see also part 1 and part 3) Click for the next 7 pieces.

### Juxtapositions: Song Charts

February 26, 2008

How’s this for a concept: take a popular song, and create a graph or chart that communicates the content of the song lyric or title. There’s a slew of these over on Flikr. My two favorites are:

#1) [featuring a lovely Venn diagram] (by “moved”)

and #2) [not at all mathematical, but funny nonetheless] (by “brianmn”)

Well, ok, maybe these are my favorites because they’re nearly the only ones where I knew what song they referred to (out of the nearly 200 examples on Flickr). I guess I’m just too old to be down with the hep music the cool kids listen to these days. **

Challenge: Create your own, and post them in the comments! (Bonus points for songs or charts with mathematical references.)

This graph-making exercise is vaguely reminiscent of my favorite powerpoint example floating the interweb: Peter Norvig’s devastating ppt adaptation of Abe Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.

** True: I received my AARP membership card in the mail today. No foolin’! Heck of a thing for them to send out en masse to folk on some mailing list or other in hopes of drumming up support and new members. Makes me wonder what mailing list I’m on that AARP purchased…

Charts used with permission of boyshapedbox, who had posted them to flickr.

### Musical Pi, Part 1

January 27, 2008

Jon Turner, a professor of musical composition here at Nazareth, has composed a suite of music based on π! (see also part 2 and part 3) As he says:

The basic idea is to use the decimal expansion of pi to give an unendingly varying [but] related series of notes.

The first step was to convert π to base 12 (to match the chromatic musical scale), so

$\pi = 3.1415926535\ldots_{10} = 3.184809493B\ldots_{12}$

(where B represents decimal 11 in base 12). Starting with C at 0, he gets

$\pi = E\flat D\flat A\flat E A\flat C\ldots$

### Music and Light Show All in One

November 6, 2007

(From Good Math, Bad Math) Apparently you can play music with a Tesla coil. Or two. Watch and enjoy.

They have another one, too.