Well, I'm pleased to see that this thread has provoked some reaction. I could reply to everything in the thread but I'll stick to a few points.
Really because at that point you might as well go around saying playing Halo is just maths
Well, yes. It is. At the heart of the program there is, among other things, a series of Linear Transformations of the form A
x=
d going on (
x and
d are vectors), a mathematical equation solved mathematically, that basically determine what happens when you fire a pistol. The maps are built using mathematical modelling techniques. In order to gun effectively, you need to take into account the speed and direction of the hog, lead the target somewhat,
and factor in for Ping differences - basically, you've done a sum. Which is maths. So, in conclusion... Halo is maths.
Music is about creativity, imagination, and expression. Math is all about sterile perfection, and while you can do lots of things with it, it's just not the same and never will be.
That's not really fair. A good mathematician also needs those skills - certainly of creativity and imagination. And I think calling it sterile isn't accurate either. What is sterile about fractal geometry, a subject that generates some of the most beautiful patterns in existence? Or wave mechanics, which it has been shown can generate the exact same patterns as the glorious colouring of certain insects? Or electromagnetic field theory, which in the space of a blackbaord can contain everything - pretty much - there is to know about the subject?
It takes a while to appreciate this but maths really is beautiful. The sad fact is that in order to appreciate that beauty you would have to study it in rather more depth than that gone into at school and even college.
for me music is a Pleasing series of sounds and nothing more.
The question is, why is the series of sounds pleasing? Why does every person like a different set of music songs and so on? The answer is quite likely similar to why we all have different-sounding voices, which is to do with the acoustic properties of our bodies. This is perhaps the biggest claim I'm making here.
I highly doubt that the brain is doing Fourier transforms.
Well the way it was expressed to me in lecturres on this topic was, in fact, that the brain
was, effectively, performing a Fourier transform. Specifically the cochlea in the inner ear has a frequency response (unique to each individual human) and this frequency response would be the same as that given by the relevant Fourier Transform that, again, varies from person to person.
Several composers have already in the past have been making use of mathematical techniques to compose music. Specifically, they use concepts like the Fibonacci numbers and the Golden ratio, while each and every tuning system for any instrument, in one way or another, makes use of exact mathematical ratios. When you play a stringed instrument you are creating standing waves in the strings that only vibrate at specific wave frequencies. The guitar, piano and violin, for example, are all built using these mathematical ratios. The different sounds created between different instruments, even of the same type, owes itself to different acoustic properties of the instrument that can be quantified using tensors.
And so on.
One other interesting addition to this post is that C# and Db (C sharp and D-flat) are not necessarily the same note. They just are in most tuning systems.
