Friday, January 19, 2007

Mapping Music  

The article Mapping Music in Harvard Magazine (January-February 2007) describes a technique that uses non-Euclidean geometry and ideas from string theory to map chords. Very cool. This may provide some insight into the question of why certain note combinations are percieved as dissonant or consonant, and why some chord progressions "work" while others do not.

The guy behind this, Dmitri Tymocko, has a website here that includes the paper he published in Science on this (the first musicoloy paper in Science's history) along with movies and software to plot chords yourself. I am definitely using this the next time I teach acoustics!

Thursday, January 11, 2007

This just in: Soy will turn your kid into a fey girly man with a very small penis. Also: God hates vegans

OK, I really need to catch up after being out of contact over the holidays. But first things first: I just have to make note of the latest foul plot that has been unearthed by G*d-fearing members of the Christian (tm) Right: Tofu Will Make You Gay!