Music: a Mathematical Offering

Free book, seems to cover many things of interest to this group:

http://www.maths.abdn.ac.uk/~bensondj/html/maths-music.html

/ Magnus

"Music: a Mathematical Offering" is a pretty boring rehash of all the
old last century traditional understanding of the maths of music.

I searched the .pdf for references to pi (π) and found literally
hundreds of pies embedded into equations, and even a few π's in the
text.

I searched on equal temperaments and found that the author had
entirely ignored 88edo.

I did an ego-search on Lucy, and found a dismissive paragraph and a
link to a very old url.

The text on the site winges about "many people putting old versions of
this text online", I am amazed that anyone has even bothered;-)

Someone (the webmaster?) claims that: "The text is regularly updated,
and your version is almost always out of date, sometimes by several
years."

This version is outta date by centuries;-)

To me it all looks like another case of "can't see the wood for the
trees" .

On 29 Feb 2008, at 20:46, Magnus Jonsson wrote:

> Free book, seems to cover many things of interest to this group:
>
>

> http://www.maths.abdn.ac.uk/~bensondj/html/maths-music.html
>
> / Magnus
>
>
>
>

Charles Lucy
lucy@lucytune.com

- Promoting global harmony through LucyTuning -

for information on LucyTuning go to:
http://www.lucytune.com

For LucyTuned Lullabies go to:
http://www.lullabies.co.uk

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, Charles Lucy <lucy@...> wrote:
>
> "Music: a Mathematical Offering" is a pretty boring rehash of all
the
> old last century traditional understanding of the maths of music.
>
> I searched the .pdf for references to pi (π) and found literally
> hundreds of pies embedded into equations, and even a few π's in
the
> text.
>
> I searched on equal temperaments and found that the author had
> entirely ignored 88edo.
>
> I did an ego-search on Lucy, and found a dismissive paragraph and
a
> link to a very old url.

You have no right to gripe. Excluding the listings in the index,
your name appears *three times* vs. only one mention of Erv Wilson
(in a footnote, at that). :-(

--George

Thanks George;

You amplify my point.

On 29 Feb 2008, at 22:50, George D. Secor wrote:

> --- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, Charles Lucy <lucy@...> wrote:
> >
> > "Music: a Mathematical Offering" is a pretty boring rehash of all
> the
> > old last century traditional understanding of the maths of music.
> >
> > I searched the .pdf for references to pi (Ï€) and found literally
> > hundreds of pies embedded into equations, and even a few π's in
> the
> > text.
> >
> > I searched on equal temperaments and found that the author had
> > entirely ignored 88edo.
> >
> > I did an ego-search on Lucy, and found a dismissive paragraph and
> a
> > link to a very old url.
>
> You have no right to gripe. Excluding the listings in the index,
> your name appears *three times* vs. only one mention of Erv Wilson
> (in a footnote, at that). :-(
>
> --George
>
>
>

Charles Lucy
lucy@lucytune.com

- Promoting global harmony through LucyTuning -

for information on LucyTuning go to:
http://www.lucytune.com

For LucyTuned Lullabies go to:
http://www.lullabies.co.uk

"Music: a Mathematical Offering" has impressive range
and is pretty hip. It doesn't go too deep in any one
subject, and I could do without the lemmas and
proofs--not being a mathematician myself. But it's
actually one of the more interesting books on music
theory I've ever seen. Thanks for bringing it to my
attention.

--- Carl Lumma <carl@lumma.org> wrote:

> --- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, Charles Lucy
> <lucy@...> wrote:
> >
> > "Music: a Mathematical Offering" is a pretty
> boring rehash of
> > all the old last century traditional understanding
> of the maths
> > of music.
>
> And John Harrison's math is the wave of the future,
> right?
> Honestly, I wouldn't say Karplus-Strong synthesis is
> all that
> out of date.
>
> > I searched the .pdf for references to pi (pi) and
> found literally
> > hundreds of pies embedded into equations, and even
> a few pi's in
> > the text.
>
> My god! What are the chances!?
>
> > I searched on equal temperaments and found that
> the author had
> > entirely ignored 88edo.
>
> Quick: call the vice squad.
>
> > I did an ego-search on Lucy, and found a
> dismissive paragraph and
> > a link to a very old url.
>
> hahaha
>
> > To me it all looks like another case of "can't see
> the wood for
> > the trees" .
>
> I say, Charles, thanks for weighing in with your
> expert opinion.
>
> -Carl
>
>