The Well-Tempered Ear

Is the math-music link real?

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By Jacob Stockinger

The blog post before the last one was about solving the “beautiful mathematics” in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach.

Here is a link: https://welltempered.wordpress.com/2024/02/18/solving-the-beautiful-math-in-bach/

But does a link between math and music really exist?

And if such a link does exist, how strong is it?

Can one discipline be used to teach the other?

Many readers have no doubt heard of how devoted Albert Einstein (below) was to his violin, even playing string quartets at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J. He said he thought about physics in musical terms and found his greatest joy in music. He also played duets with physicist Max Planck, who was an accomplished pianist as were Werner Heisenberg and Edward Teller. 

Dr. Francis Collins, the well-known geneticist and former head of the National Institutes for Health, is known for playing the guitar. As the 2020 winner of the Templeton Prize for scientific and spiritual curiosity, Collins accompanies  superstar soprano Renée Fleming in the Stephen Foster song “Hard Times, Come Again No More” in the YouTube video at the button.)

Locally, the late pioneering University of Wisconsin-Madison geneticist Jim Crow (below) played the viola, even sitting in with the Pro Arte Quartet.

The Ear also knows of many middle schoolers, high schoolers and UW students, especially undergraduates, who pursue dual majors in music and math, science or medicine — often to pursue a more practical and better paying career than being a professional musician.

Personal anecdotes can be dramatic and convincing.

But anecdotes and evidence are not the same thing.

Here is a more formal study:

https://www.iflscience.com/is-there-really-a-link-between-math-skills-and-musical-skills-73069

What do you think?

Are math and music linked?

Do you know of other famous examples?

What has been your own experience with math and music?

If you are a music, math or science teacher, have you noticed such a link among your students?

What do students themselves — for example, those in the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras (WYSO) — say about such a math-music link?

The Ear wants to hear.