Math 5: Resources
- FALL 2008
Theory: General references
- On reserve at Baker library (the Paddock ones have been moved
to Baker):
- Gareth Loy, Musimathics, volume 1.
My list of ERRATA for first
printing (2006) of this book.
The second printing
I have been promised corrects more of these.
Author's website.
- Arthur Benade, Fundamentals of Musical Acoustics,
(Dover edition, 1990), is a beautiful, non-mathematical introduction
at about our level (in fact with less math than we'll do).
Benade was a renowned researcher of the workings of instruments.
- Rossing, Moore and Wheeler, The Science of Sound,
3rd Ed. (2002). (I think 2nd Ed. is also on reserve).
This massive book introduces many of the
concepts of our course, at our level, with a engineering/physics rather
than math spin.
It tends to be encyclopedic, with a lot of sometimes tedious or
incomprehensible data and graphs on particular instruments,
while missing the elegant universal themes.
- Fauvel, J., Flood, R., and Wilson, R., eds.
Music and Mathematics : from Pythagoras to fractals (2003).
Lovely collection of (unrelated) articles connecting music and math.
Great source of project ideas, esp. for those who prefer historical
and music analysis projects.
- Charles Taylor, Exploring Music: The Science and Technology
of Tones and Tunes (1992). Very intuitive, has lots of engineering type
demos, pictures of waves, etc. Not mathematical.
- Johnston, I. H.,
Measured tones : the interplay of physics and music (2002).
As with the above, a nice, intuitive book with concepts explained via text rather than equations. Good explanations of tuning systems, pipe and string modes.
-
Music: A Mathematical Offering
by David J. Benson (Cambridge University Press, 2007),
a freely-available 10MB PDF file. This is a wonderful study,
with beautiful and deep musical-math connections,
and almost-obsessive detail about e.g.
tuning systems, Fourier methods, world-music instruments, symmetry, etc.
It is at the advanced undergrad math major level, but don't be scared to
dig in!
- Other books:
- Fletcher, The Physics of Musical Instruments (1991),
wonderful investigations into details of instrument acoustics,
is more mathematically sophisticated than our course.
Fletcher is known for his original research in this area.
- College
of Santa Fe Auditory Theory is a nice online textbook, with demos
too.
- Basic Physics of Sound course by Rick Van Kooten at Indiana.
- Wave
and sound applets from Indiana University Southeast.
- Physics of
Music course by Christopher Munroe at UMD.
- Victor
Stanionis book on Computer Music, reviews digital recording and
synthesis, some physics of waves.
- ECHOES Newsletters from
the Acoustical Society of America. Interesting research and news. Great
starting point for projects and aural postings.
- Vibration Data collection of online newsletters with interesting acoustics applications,
good for project ideas.
- Internet Searching Guide: links on assessing web sources and searching,
by our library staff.
- General notes on exam and study
technique (geared mainly towards final exams in intermediate-level math courses).
Mathematics
Instruments
Music Theory and Perception
Acoustics
Music/sound sources
- How to generate and decode DTMF (telephone touch tone) signals:
here
- DRAM
academic music collection (requires Quicktime plugin to listen via
web streaming; can't download unless you record your own computer's audio
using audacity...)
- Primate vocalizations from Hauser lab at Harvard.
- Binaural beats examples.