The acceptance of the following fact may be impossible for some. This I can understand, it's not their fault. It's stupid people's fault, for slandering maths and trying to make it ugly. But this isn't about stupid people. This is about music. And how it's maths.
For this next bit, I'm going to have to borrow the infinite intellect of the late Douglas Adams, the genius behind Hitchhikers Guide to the galaxy.
Imagine a ball being thrown at you. Assuming you're prepared and fit, you can easily catch that ball. But think about it.
That ball is traveling at a good speed, and is making an arc. And arc your mind has to calculate in order to get your hand where it should be. Now, although your average athlete could have trouble audibly dividing a couple of three digit numbers, they are able to (subconsciously) predict and define the movement and target of an object at high speeds in a matter of seconds. People call it instinct, and leave it at that. But this is high level mathematical thinking. This is nature. This is what we are. Maths is our organic, nonpolluting petrol that doesn't cost a pound a litre.
What is music? Audible art. What is art? A reflection of nature (Be it in the literal, physical or meta-physical sense) that appeals to our senses. And the thing that we conceive in nature is maths. (I'll touch upon this another time)
What do we look for in music? Sequence, dynamics patterns. All of which can be expressed with numbers. Exponentials, Pythagoras, ratios- they're all in musical theory. Hell, an obvious example (yet crude in my opinion) would be the construction of violins to the Golden Ratio. Better yet would be the exponential rates of the harmonic identities and octaves, or the ratios in tuning.
Now this is where it goes to interpretation. The Blue Pill/Red Pill Moment.
Blue Pill: Continue to believe that music, nature and all art are "Free" and "Spiritual", and that maths is "Unnatural" and "Ugly", and comparison of the two media lessens and insults all art.
Red Pill: Realise the beauty in such intricacies and patterns that stems from the mathematical qualities of music, which therefore creates our understanding of music.
Take it as you will.
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