Inhaltsangabe
Unravels the mystery of the relationship between music and mathematics, discussing their differences and their surprising similarities--including their origins in cult and mystery. 20,000 first printing.
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Rezensionen
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
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.
Music and mathematics, Rothstein notes, have been companions throughout history, from Pythagorean mysticism relating sounds to numbers, to astronomer Johannes Kepler's claim that his laws of planetary motion revealed a music of the spheres, to the mathematical thinking that pervades musical compositions by Arnold Schoenberg, Iannis Xenakis and John Cage. In an elegantly written, original inquiry, the New York Times's chief music critic argues that the links between these two fields, far from being accidental, reveal profound underlying similarities. Both music and mathematics, Rothstein says, use abstraction, proportion, comparison, transformation and metaphor to create grand unifying structures out of small details in their quest for timeless forms, hidden order and beauty. Rothstein's uncanny insights in this intensive exploration will startle and reward the literate layperson, including those with no technical knowledge of either music or math. Illustrated.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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