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21st Cumberland Conference on Graph Theory, Combinatorics, and Computing ---In Honor of Mike Plummer's 70th Birthday
May 15-17, 2008
Vanderbilt University
Nashville, TN, USA

Organizers
Mark Ellingham and Gexin Yu

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Mathematics and Music
by
Jason I. Brown
Dalhousie University

Mathematics and music are a match made in heaven. The ancient Greeks elevated both to the same level, and even the most unschooled rock musician uses more mathematics than he or she realizes. In this talk I'll survey some of the most interesting connections between mathematics and music, including:
- trigonometric identities and tunings
- small fractions and intervals
- circular seating arrangements, scales and rhythm guitar
- Joni Mitchell's capo system
- derivation of the blues
- the musical art of being ambiguous (or not)
- musical and mathematical transformations
I'll end off the talk with a discussion of an application of mathematics I carried out a few years ago to two musical mysteries surrounding The Beatles.

Date received: May 1, 2008

Copyright © 2008 by the author(s). The author(s) of this document and the organizers of the conference have granted their consent to include this abstract in Atlas Conferences Inc. Document # cawn-67.