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Emily Hoch
Math 1030/Nelson
4/26/2016
The Mathematics of Music
Masterful musician and gifted composer Ludwig van Beethoven said, Music can
change the world. I, too, agree that music plays a powerful part in our culture. Musics
influence in our lives is vast and far-reaching. You watch a movietheres a powerful
orchestration accompanying the characters. You play a videogametheres a catchy score
playing along as you pass another level. You step on an elevator or walk through a store or
turn on the radiowhat do you hear? Music.
But musics purpose isnt only to entertain and uplift. Various academics have set out
to prove that there is a strong correlation between music and human behavior, and they have
in fact concluded that music has the power to affect your brain, the very way you think and
act.
An enterprising high school student in Virginia further tested the assumption that the
brain is influenced by music. To begin his project, he ran 72 mice through a maze,
determining that the average completion time was ten minutes. Then he divided the mice into
three groups: one listening to classical music, a second listening to the heavy metal band

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Anthrax, and the control group listened to no music. He ran the mice through the maze once
a day for approximately a month.
At the end of four weeks, he tested the mice for a final time. The results were
stunning: the control group averaged five minutes; the Mozart mice, just 1 minutes; and
the hard-rock mice stumbled through the maze in an average of 30 minutes (Parade
Magazine). This study reinforces results from countless other investigations that support the
supposition that music has a deep influence on functions of the brain.
So we know that music has a distinct effect on our culture and human behavior, but
could we go a step further and assume then that music is logical too? Or in other words, is
music mathematical?
Growing up in a highly musical family I never really considered the possibility that
music was mathematical. But quantitative reasoning has taught me that math is, to some
degree, a part of everything we do. In fact, the astronomer Galileo Galilei said that the entire
universe "is written in the language of mathematics", so it shouldnt be too surprising then
that music, with all its passion and feeling, is also based upon mathematical relationships.
So what about music is mathematical? Elements of music such as form, rhythm and
meter, the pitches of notes and the tempo can be linked to the mathematical measurement of
time and frequency, and even forms of geometry. Efforts to arrange new ways of composing

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and hearing music has led to applications of algebra and number theory to musical. Consider
again Ludwig van Beethoven: How is it that he, who is distinguished as one of the most
important composers of all time, wrote many of his most treasured songs while going deaf?
The answer lies in the math behind his music. Take for example Beethovens composition
Moonlight Sonata, the patterns in the music heavily rely on mathematical principles. The
song starts with a basic pattern of triplets. Though the melody may sound simple it is actually
dealing with highly complex patterns of octaves and pitch. Beethoven said, "I always have a
picture in my mind when composing, and follow its lines." By using mathematical principles
of pitch, geometry, and algebra he was able to create extremely complex and beautiful
melodies.
As I researched the mathematics of music I found some really interesting statistics as
well:
The American music industry generated 15 billion U.S. dollars in 2012,
making up 30 percent of the total 50 billion U.S. dollars generated by the
global music industry.
The U. S. market constitutes 42.7% of global music instrument purchases,
followed by Japan at 15.6% and the United Kingdom at 6.7%.

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More than one-half (52%) of U. S. households have at least one person, age 5
or older, who is currently playing a musical instrument, as compared to 37% in
the U. K. and 36% in Australia.
Perhaps even more significant, 40% of U. S. households have two or more
persons actively involved in playing music.
Marginally more women (51%) play music instruments than men (49%).
Overall, this project has been really eye-opening. I never considered just how much
math is used in music, and how statistically significant music is to our culture. To conclude
Id like to end with a quote that I think sums up how I feel about the mathematics of music.
James Sylvester said, May not music be described as the mathematics of the sense,
mathematics as music of the reason? The musician feels mathematics, the mathematician
thinks music: music the dream, mathematics the working life.

Bibliography

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http://www.statista.com/topics/1639/music/
http://www.aswltd.com/gallup.htm
https://plus.maths.org/content/magical-mathematics-music
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAxT0mRGuoY