Ben Wilson

Like, commanded by God to bring this religious music to people. And I think you can hear that religious devotion in his music. I think that is what people miss about Bach. People sometimes call his music mathematical. And in a way, I know what they're saying. It is, right? It's very regular. Its proportions are very mathematical.

Like, commanded by God to bring this religious music to people. And I think you can hear that religious devotion in his music. I think that is what people miss about Bach. People sometimes call his music mathematical. And in a way, I know what they're saying. It is, right? It's very regular. Its proportions are very mathematical.

Leibniz famously said, music is the hidden arithmetical exercise of a mind unconscious that it is calculating. And I think Leibniz is correct. Right? There is this incredible connection between math and music. I can't remember who said this, but one of the Manhattan Project physicists, speaking of Oppenheimer, said he was the only physicist he ever knew who wasn't musical.

Leibniz famously said, music is the hidden arithmetical exercise of a mind unconscious that it is calculating. And I think Leibniz is correct. Right? There is this incredible connection between math and music. I can't remember who said this, but one of the Manhattan Project physicists, speaking of Oppenheimer, said he was the only physicist he ever knew who wasn't musical.

Okay, every other physicist he knew, and he knew all of them, right? He's in the Manhattan Project. Every other physicist he knew was very musical. And by the way, Oppenheimer's weakness as a physicist is that he wasn't a terribly gifted mathematician. So that's interesting, right? There's this connection between math and music. And why is that? Well, It is a mathematical language.

Okay, every other physicist he knew, and he knew all of them, right? He's in the Manhattan Project. Every other physicist he knew was very musical. And by the way, Oppenheimer's weakness as a physicist is that he wasn't a terribly gifted mathematician. So that's interesting, right? There's this connection between math and music. And why is that? Well, It is a mathematical language.

So if you think about an octave, Okay. What is an octave? I'll do a little right now in front of my computer, but I'll play on the piano a little bit later so you can hear what I'm talking about. Okay. So if you think about an octave, it's the same note, but one register higher. Okay. So if you look at like a piano, it goes A, B, C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C, D, E, F, G. Okay.

So if you think about an octave, Okay. What is an octave? I'll do a little right now in front of my computer, but I'll play on the piano a little bit later so you can hear what I'm talking about. Okay. So if you think about an octave, it's the same note, but one register higher. Okay. So if you look at like a piano, it goes A, B, C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C, D, E, F, G. Okay.

So what does it mean that notes are repeating? What does it mean that you have C and then C? Okay. Two Cs. So I'll play an octave for you now. C, C. Okay? And you can hear they sound the same. You play them together and they blend perfectly. And we speak of them as being the same note. They're both Cs. But what do we mean by that they're the same note? Obviously they're not actually the same note.

So what does it mean that notes are repeating? What does it mean that you have C and then C? Okay. Two Cs. So I'll play an octave for you now. C, C. Okay? And you can hear they sound the same. You play them together and they blend perfectly. And we speak of them as being the same note. They're both Cs. But what do we mean by that they're the same note? Obviously they're not actually the same note.

One is lower, one is higher. So what do we mean when we say they are the same? Why do they blend this way? Why do they sound the same even though we know that they are different tones? And the answer is that the sound waves produced by the higher note in the octave have exactly half the wavelength of the same note at a lower octave. Okay?

One is lower, one is higher. So what do we mean when we say they are the same? Why do they blend this way? Why do they sound the same even though we know that they are different tones? And the answer is that the sound waves produced by the higher note in the octave have exactly half the wavelength of the same note at a lower octave. Okay?

And so you can see there's like this mathematical relationship. That's why they sound pleasing together is one and one half when you hear an octave together. That's just the most obvious example of a mathematical proportion creating harmony in music. But there are, of course, many different proportions and mathematical relationships that create interesting sounds in music.

And so you can see there's like this mathematical relationship. That's why they sound pleasing together is one and one half when you hear an octave together. That's just the most obvious example of a mathematical proportion creating harmony in music. But there are, of course, many different proportions and mathematical relationships that create interesting sounds in music.

That is basically what music is, the creation of interesting and pleasing mathematical relationships between sound waves, different sound waves together. And it is true that Bach took a rigorous and mathematical approach to these relationships.

That is basically what music is, the creation of interesting and pleasing mathematical relationships between sound waves, different sound waves together. And it is true that Bach took a rigorous and mathematical approach to these relationships.

There's a great quote from the book Johann Sebastian Bach by Christoph Wolff that Bach, quote, understood the elaboration of musical ideas not as an act of free creation, but rather as a process of imaginative research. And I actually think that is a really powerful paradigm for understanding creativity. It is imaginative research.

There's a great quote from the book Johann Sebastian Bach by Christoph Wolff that Bach, quote, understood the elaboration of musical ideas not as an act of free creation, but rather as a process of imaginative research. And I actually think that is a really powerful paradigm for understanding creativity. It is imaginative research.

So it's imaginative, it's open and curious and creative, but it's also research. It's pointed in a specific direction. It's trying to solve a specific problem or elucidate a specific idea.

So it's imaginative, it's open and curious and creative, but it's also research. It's pointed in a specific direction. It's trying to solve a specific problem or elucidate a specific idea.