Music
by Dave Benson · first published 2006
7mentions
6recommended by
6HN commenters
2012–2024first – last mentioned
100% recommend
Why HN recommends it
Mathematical treatment of music covering the physical and theoretical foundations of pitch, tuning, and harmony. It is a deeper, freely available reference for engineers and computer scientists.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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…computer science end of things, and this is recommended reading for anyone that works on my team. If you prefer to have an actual book, it is directly available for purchase on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Music-Mathematical-Offering-Dave-Benso...
on “Music: A Mathematical Offering (2008)” ↗If you're looking for a book, Music: A Mathematical Offering https://www.amazon.com/Music-Mathematical-Offering-Dave-Bens... is pretty good. But you're nearly a the end of your recursion, though. Wikipedia ought to take you the rest of…
on “Programmers generate every possible melody in MIDI to prevent lawsuits” ↗…sharps and flats instead of just more letters? The number of notes and the ratios between their frequencies are fundamental. The rest are historical accidents. A good place to start is David Benson's 'Music: a Mathematical Offering'. Available free online here: https://homepages.abdn.ac.uk/d.j.benson/pages/html/maths-mus....
on “A study of musical scales (2017)” ↗Another good book in the same vein is Dave Benson's 'Music: a Mathematical Offering'. https://homepages.abdn.ac.uk/d.j.benson/pages/html/maths-mus...
on “The Mathematics of Music [pdf]” ↗…completely replaced. The scientific stuff in Schoenberg's Theory of Harmony is mostly garbage though. If you're interested in reading more about the modern understanding of the physical properties of music I'd recommend "Musimathics: The Mathematical Foundations of Music," and Benson's "Music: A Mathematical Offering." For an attempt to look at musical structure in terms of its cognition, I enjoyed "The…
on “The distinction between music and noise is mathematical form” ↗In case some folks have not seen it: along something of the same lines but in very much more depth is Music: A Mathematical Offering by Dave Benson, at https://logosfoundation.org/kursus/music_math.pdf
on “What Is a Major Chord?” ↗…series of 3 volumes with all sorts of wisdom on FX design, studio systems and composition Wilson, Cottle and Collins - "The Supercollider Book". In the style of The Csound Book, but with SC. Loy - "Musicmathics". A rare and much under-rated two volume set on the equations behind audio DSP Bilbao - "Numerical Sound Synthesis". A hard but rewarding journey to understanding audio physics as linear diff…
on “The Theory and Technique of Electronic Music (2006)” ↗