Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #155155 in Books
• Published on: 2006-05-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 284 pages

From Publishers Weekly
New York Times music critic Rothstein examines the underlying formal connections between music and math.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Rothstein, who is both a mathematician and a musician, is currently the chief music critic for the New York Times. In moving back and forth between the worlds of music and mathematics, he has frequently encountered the generally accepted notion that there are many connections between the two. This book attempts "to explain why these connections are far from accidental or incidental and why they reveal something profound about the nature of each activity." Rothstein writes for the lay reader: this decidedly nonmathematical reviewer found the examples from mathematics quite accessible, and the music discussion could be grasped even without the explanatory figures. However, each section of the book focuses mainly on one field or the other, and, for all his clarity, Rothstein does not ever really succeed in drawing them together. Still, academic and larger public libraries should have a sufficient number of patrons who share Rothstein's dual interests, and they will find much to ponder and enjoy in this book.?Martin Jenkins, Wright State Univ. Lib., Dayton, Ohio
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
As Wordsworth climbed Mount Snowden to view the moon in the sky at dawn illuminating the mist of the sea, so Rothstein climbs out of the caves of Plato and up to the forms of Socrates. On the way, he shows us the art of mathematics and the science of music, arguing that mathematical proofs are as much matters of style and elegance as of logic and that music is as much a matter of structure and transformation as of psychic and historic confrontation. As mathematics deals with discrete numbers and continuous space, music deals with discrete tones and beats and with continuous sensations. Rothstein ties these thoughts together at the end by exploring, with Plato, shadows on cave walls cast by puppets, which in turn are images of "real" people, and so on. As the moon and mist were Wordsworth's emblems of mind, the differences between truth and perception are Rothstein's emblems of mind. His book challenges us to understand the appeal of both the elegance of mathematics and the logic of music. Alan Hirsch

Customer Reviews

Interesting but fails to relate music to mathematics
This book has a lot of interesting information about both music and mathematics. But it seems to me to be two different books interleaved with each other in one volume. The mathematics covers factors and primes, the Golden Ratio, and infinity; none of these are related to music by the author. The music analyzes by what seems to be traditional methods musical compositions such as Beethoven's Appassionata Sonata and Chopin's Prelude in A minor Op 28 No. 2 (I call this one "The Monster"). The analysis of the latter is faulty in one respect: at the climax the author says that the chords can't be named; I can name the main chord: a D# diminished chord with a minor seventh on top; actually the piece reminds me of someone trying to be funny by ending a D major piece with a sour-note D# in the melody.

There is relationship between music and mathematics; for example, the structure of the scale and that the A of G major differs from the A in C major in just intonation by the ratio of 81/80; or the relationship of rhythm styles with numbers in binary notation. But none of this is mentioned. To me this is two separate books; interesting to read (especially on Chopin's monstrous prelude above) but still with a split identity.

A thoughtful, engaging discussion of a complex relationship
I have read Rothstein's book several times since it was printed, and I have also used it as a text in several Honors College courses devoted to the the relationship between music and mathematics. One way of defining music is that it's a five letter word in the English language for a lot of different things that people do with patterns of sound and silence. And one way of defining mathematics is that it's an eleven letter word in the English language for a lot of different things that people do with pattern. By exploring the ways in which music and mathematics handle pattern, one is naturally pointed in other directions (weaving, art, science) that demonstrate how valuable it is to recognize and explore the inter-connectedness of apparently "different" fields. Rothstein's book is an elegant exploration of this kind of inter-connectedness. Although both musicians and mathematicians might find themselves alternately arguing with Rothstein about an issue in their own field, or befuddled because he is talking about something they do not understand, "Emblems of Mind" provides both with a thought-provoking and outstanding contribution to the literature on the topic. While other texts have tended to be so sophomoric as to be useless, Rothstein's book challenges the reader to explore more deeply a connection which seems so obvious yet amorphous when one looks at it more closely. It's unfortunate he doesn't write more about it.

Good Food for thought
The goal of Emblems of Mind is not to answer questions and draw concrete parallels, but rather to illuminate two disciplines often poorly understood by layman. As a classically educated musician, I found that the mathematical concepts were intriguing and informative, and while the music theory was basic it was a nice refresher course. The real strength of this book though, is the questions it causes you to ask of yourself, particularly if you are musician, about the nature of and perception of art. The answers aren't in the book, but they really can't be for they will be different for everyreader. Overall the book is intriguing and I doubt that anyone will come away from it having learned nothing.