Time, music andmathematics

Wilfrid Hodges

Dartmoor, November 2009

http://wilfridhodges.co.uk/greenwichtime.pdf

‘Time’

‘Ear’ (!)

Mathematician

Time looks like this:

-

Grasshopper warbler

(1) Events in time(2) Rhythms and repeated events(3) Hierarchies of rhythms(4) Clash of rhythms(5) Mixing time and space (pitch)

1. Events in time

Time only becomes interesting when an eventoccurs in it.

Three kinds of event:(a) At a point.(b) Over an interval, i.e. between two points.(c) With a clear start (the ‘attack’) but

no clear end.

(a) A point event (Haydn, ‘SurpriseSymphony’)

0 4 51 5 3 0

(b) An interval event (Haydn, ‘The Creation’)

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(c) An event with clear start but no clear end

A piano note

Haydn, ‘Minuet al Rovescio’

2. Rhythms and repeated events

Part, ‘Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten’

41 5 3 0

Dot-dot-dot in Britten ‘Peter Grimes’

Glinka, Finn’s song in ‘Ruslan and Lyudmila’

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3. Hierarchies of rhythms

“Whichever art makes the greater use ofperfection [i.e. dividing time into 3s]appears to be the more perfect.But this is true of the ancient art. . . .The new art has what it calls imperfect time[which divides time into 2s or 4s].”Jacob of Liege, c. 1330.

Ravel, ‘String quartet’

(Cf. Genesis, ‘Apocalypse in 9/8’.)

4. Clash of rhythms

Time ratio 1:2 (Brahms, ‘Ein DeutschesRequiem’)

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Time ratios 20:19:18:17:

Nancarrow, ‘Study 36 for player piano’

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5. Mixing time and space (pitch)

Josquin Desprez (c. 1500), ‘Huc me sydereo’,represents a meteor shower

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de - scen - - de - re ius - sit O - lym - po

To read

J. Fauvel, R. Flood and R. Wilson (eds.),Music and Mathematics: From Pythagoras toFractals, Oxford University Press 2003.

L. Harkleroad, The Math behind the Music,Cambridge University Press 2006.

Diagrams from G. Reaney in The New Oxford History of Musicvol. III 1960;W. Malm, Music Cultures of the Pacific, The Near East, and Asia,Prentice-Hall 1977;and H. Olson, Music, Physics and Engineering, Dover 1977.

Music citedI Johannes Brahms, Ein Deutsches Requiem, EMI Classics

1993.I Josquin Desprez, Huc me sydereo, Archiv 2000.I Mikhail Glinka, Ruslan and Lyudmila, Bolshoi 1978-9.I Joseph Haydn, The Creation, Oiseau-Lyre 1990.I Joseph Haydn, Piano sonata Hob.xvi.26, Auvidis Valois

1993.I Joseph Haydn, Surprise Symphony, Brilliant Classics 2001.I Inde du Nord, Girija Devi en concert, Harmonia Mundi

1995.I Conlon Nancarrow, Studies for Player Piano 36, Wergo

1990.I Arvo Part, Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten, EMI

Classics for Pleasure 2002.I Maurice Ravel, String Quartet, Lindsay String Quartet,

ASV 1995.