Member-only story
Johann Sebastian Bach and the Mathematical Mind
Bach was a musical master of mathematical manipulation
“If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music.” — Albert Einstein (1879–1955)
NOTE: This story has been updated. You can read the new version here.
I n the Western world, since the time of Pythagoras there has been a sort of common wisdom that music and mathematics are intimately connected. This is certainly true in the physical sense that there are mathematical formulas that govern the generation of musical sounds and the construction of musical scales, rhythms, and sometimes form.
The more interesting connection is the relationship between the musical and the mathematical mind. Music and mathematics are distinct languages that require many years of study and practice to achieve fluency. What they seem to share is an abiding respect for the power and importance of pattern recognition. At some level, the composer, improviser, mathematician, and physicist all explore the world of patterns to discover what comes next.
