mathematics and music

Alan Turing – brilliant mathematician, code breaker during World War II – achieved so much during his tragically short life. But how do you put Turing's life and mathematics on stage... and as a musical?

How is frequency related to pitch? Hear the music we love emerge from pure mathematical beats.

Is it possible to write unique music with the limited quantity of notes and chords available? We ask musician Oli Freke!

Explore the connections between mathematics and music at the La La Lab exhibition.

Explore the connections between maths and music!

In a previous article we found a Möbius strip in Bach's music. This time it's a doughnut shape.

Discover (and listen to) the Möbius strip that's hidden within one of Bach's famous canons.

Given there's a finite number of notes on a scale, can we still find a brand new melody? Perhaps they've all been written already!

The funeral of the great flamenco guitarist Paco de Lucía this week reminded us of the mathematical and musical reasons we love flamenco.

Many things make a noise when you hit them, but not many are commonly used to play music — why is that? Jim Woodhouse looks at harmonic and not so harmonic frequencies and at how percussion instruments are tuned.

Fractals are a treat for your eyes, but what about your ears? Dmitry Kormann, a composer/keyboardist from São Paulo, Brazil, explains how he integrates fractal-like patterns in the very structure of his music, to obtain beautiful results.

As an electronic musician Oli Freke has always been fascinated by sine waves, so much so that he's created a song based on them for the Geekpop festival, which is currently taking place on the Web. In this article he explores his song, touching on ancient Greek mythology, strange piano tunings and Johann Sebastian Bach.