Music: A Mathematical Offering – Dave Benson – 1st Edition

Since the time of the Ancient Greeks; much has been written about the relation between mathematics and music: from harmony and number theory; to musical patterns and group theory. Benson provides a wealth of information here to enable the teacher; the student; or the interested amateur to understand; at varying levels of technicality; the real interplay between these two ancient disciplines. The story is long as well as broad and involves physics; biology; psycho acoustics; the history of science; and digital technology as well as; of course; mathematics and music. Starting with the structure of the human ear and its relationship with Fourier analysis; the story proceeds via the mathematics of musical instruments to the ideas of consonance and dissonance; and then to scales and temperaments. This is a must-have book if you want to know about the music of the spheres or digital music and many things in between.