Emblems of Mind: The Inner Life of Music and Mathematics

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. (Jan.)