Music and Physics on the Same Wave Length

Author: Abbie Beane

The circumstantial evidence is ubiquitous: Informal concerts have become a tradition at scientific conferences; physicians orchestras are popping up in large cities; professors and students alike are writing theses juxtaposing major fields of science (such as physics, chemistry and biology) with music and literary sources and articles on the subject are innumerable. It's the instrumental connections shared by quantitative sciences and music, and they cannot be ignored. But what exactly are some thoughts and theories behind this study?
According to Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Jeff Byers, who is also a talented pianist and former French horn player, "Music is the only of the arts with a quantitative facet." This belief leads him to believe that musicality is connected to the right half, or analytical side of the brain, as well to the left side of the brain, notorious for being expert at perception and creative activities.
And indeed, the January 1999 edition of the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine found that philosophers cannot do their work without a properly functioning left side of the brain, where composers sometimes can.
Yet Byers also speculated that scientific musicians may simply be more visible since "the public assumes that scientists are soulless beings who can't put emotion into anything," and music involves plucking the heart-strings. Byers, however, enjoys dispelling these myths by showcasing his musical knowledge.
Associate Professor of Music Su Lian Tan, also agreed that these two fields are in many ways associated, pointing out countless alumni and current Middlebury students who have simultaneously focused on music and physics.
She also suggests that current books on this topic serve as evidence of a connection, such as "The Music of the Spheres" by Jamie James, which explores Pythagoras' enduring contribution to music theory through hisdiscovery of the arithmetical relationships between harmonic intervals, and "The Elegant Universe" by scientist Brian Green, who is currently touring with the Emerson Quartet.
Head of the Physics department Rich Wolfson, who recently gave a lecture on this subject for October's "24 Hours of Art" can also list sources on this theory, like "The Fourth Dimension of Nonthuclydian Geometry in Modern Art" by Linda Henderson, which explores complicated theories on the ways in which music must be mathematically sensical in order to sound aesthetically pleasing.
Like creativity, science is also a search for beauty, Wolfson mentioned, and "of course technologyfacilitates art, as every instrument is scientifically built."
One particular hypothesis Wolfson highlighted was "strings theory," which suggests that the world is not made of points in space, but of strings, or "fundamental entities in nature that cannot be broken up" and vibrate like instruments. This suggests an undeniable relationship between the logical scientific order of things and the world's inherent musicality.
Recent graduates like Mary Kruger, physics major and aspiring opera singer, and Gabrielle Jacquet, a joint physics-music major, have also embraced this connection. "What I like about music is that it is made up of mathematical constructs," said Jacquet. "Yet it sounds so free and can be so emotional at the same time."
For her thesis, Jacquet did a study and measuring of the Center for the Arts Concert Hall, showcasing that the mathematical dimensions of musical spaces determine the quality of tone and sound.
Yet the link Jacquet first noticed was the "circle of fifths," whichconnects eighth notes mathematically. Certain combinations of pitches sound better than others, due to the fact that their frequencies sum to produce another wave altogether.
Undergraduate work simultaneously in these two fields continues. Kate Morrow '06, a recently declared double major in music and physics, stated that the connection she feels unites the two is that "both are governed by quantitative rules, yet both can make sense intuitively."
Morrow explained, "In music, quantitatively, a fourth sounds good to the ear because the intervals of the note frequencies are small, whole number ratios," yet you can gather this without knowing the math behind it.
"Likewise, with physics," Morrow continued, "you can plot the path of a projectile with equations and numbers, but internally we understand the laws that govern projectiles. Basketball players, for example, estimate constantly how to shoot the ball and it lands in the right place."
Bill Sunderman, retired physician and visiting scholar in the pre-medical department at the College, as well as viola player and member of the Addison Chamber Players string quartet, also suggested that there is a conspicuous link between music and medicine. He said connections like these were also born of the social context in Eastern Europe in the early twentieth century, where cultivated elites clung to traditional practices of studying two primary subjects, music and medicine.
The historical context reaches back even further, however, where doctors in classical times made use the of the ethos of music in Arabic countries in the ninth century andbelieved that the mathematical regularity of music was related to mankind's inner harmony. Other philosophers, scientists and musicians thought that the tones of music were chosen so deliberately that they constituted a logarithmic system.
Current examples of the links between science and music are also popping up everywhere: The Australian Doctors' Orchestra, the German Doctors' Orchestra, the Los Angeles Doctors' Symphony Orchestra, the Doctors' Orchestra of Houston and the John Hopkins' Orchestra are just of few of the talented musical groups composed of scientists.
One can also cite various names, such as Alexander Boridin, one of the greatest chemists and physicians of all time as well as an excellent composer, and Albert Schweitzer, accomplished organist and physician / humanitarian awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1952.
So call it all circumstantial evidence, mere correlation or just plain theory, but when it comes to suspicious quantities of linkages like these, the case for this argument looks quite convincing.