Math and music (and Gorb)

As a music educator, I am often demonstrating to students the relationship between music and the many other realms of human intelligence. If you read Howard Gardener, he explains that performing music is the only activity that activates all types of intelligence. One of the most commonly heard connections between music and other forms of intelligence is the connection between music and math.

Math relates to music in so many different ways. Music has structure the way a building has structure. One section is built upon another. The piece or building will fall apart without each piece in it's proper place. You feel this in a well composed piece of music when you have the sense that there is no other possible way for the piece to be written. One passage is the logical product of the passage preceding it. A truly great work leaves you with the feeling of constantly rediscovering something that you may have never heard before - that feeling that you get when you might state "Of course! Why didn't I think of that?"

Adam Gorb is a true master of this kind of logic. I find his music to be accessible yet it is always full of surprises. It is accessible, not because he writes with familiar tunes or in a style that is common - often this is far from the truth. But even the most esoteric of his music has a logic to it that makes sense. He uses repetition and melodic and rhythmic themes to hang his form together so that everything makes sense. This is particularly true in "Elements," his percussion concerto. This is not a piece that has a memorable melody, yet I constantly find myself with passages of the piece running through my head. The first measure of the piece presents a very distinct rhythm that is the glue for much of the first movement. It is originally stated in the solo percussion part, but then gets tossed around by the other instruments in the ensemble and is often mixed with many of the other ideas in the movement. In his works, "Dances from Crete" and "Midnight in Buenos Aires," Gorb plays on melodic patterns and rhythms that are stylistically distinct and obvious parts of Greek music and the Tango. It is what he does with these ideas that makes the music exciting and novel.

The more I advance as a musician and continue to learn about all aspects of music, the more I come back to my personal musical roots. As a musician, I am a drummer first and from that, constantly fascinated by rhythm. Rhythm is also extremely closely related to math. The simple quarter note, half note, etc. note names recall fractions as does the time signature that you find at the beginning of a piece. The truth is that these rhythmic fractions and time signatures are a simple expression of the complex numerical relationships of time throughout a piece of music. It is common for a composer to shift between rhythms and time signatures based on the common elements of each. A famous example of this is the relationship between 3/4 time and 6/8. Both time signatures have 6 eighth notes in every measure but where the accents are quite different. If you know the song "America" from West Side Story, you will know this relationship as the rhythm alternates between 6/8 and 3/4. I think that Adam Gorb must have a very strong background and fascination with math because he takes these relationships to a very different and sometimes complex level.

In his piece "Elements," he is constantly shifting time signatures and tempi. There are times when the shifts seem very abrupt, but they always make sense, whether you can figure out what is going on or not. An example of this comes from the first movement where triplets in one section become eighth notes in the next, effectively increasing the tempo by 1/3. It feels as if we suddenly shift gears and speed off (hopefully not leaving anyone in the dust!) In the second movement, the feel is almost as if there is no beat. The music floats and there are often different note groupings that layer on top of each other to create a shimmering texture. They key to this section however is that the pulse, at least amongst the musicians is extremely strong and the beat shifts around a constant eighth note. It is fascinating to study and to hear.

If all of this talk of math gives you hives and scares you, I can empathize. It scares me! Do you need to understand it all to enjoy the piece? No. To go back to the architecture analogy, you can certainly enjoy the look of a beautifully designed and constructed building without a degree in engineering. For some it is the mystery of how art is created that is the magic. For others, the fascination is in pulling it all apart to see how it works.

You will, of course, enjoy all of the pieces mentioned above and more at Evergreen Cultural Centre on October 18th at 8pm. If you're lucky, you will also get the chance to run into the composer of all of this wonderful music, as he will be coming from Manchester, England to hear this extravaganza!