Fractals in Music: Introductory Mathematics for Musical Analysis (Inmusic (Salt Lake City, Utah), No. 1.) [Hardcover]

Charles Madden (Author)

Book Description

Series: Inmusic (Salt Lake City, Utah), No. 1. | Publication Date: August 30, 1999

Establishing a new genre of musical analysis, this book goes beyond the usual analysis of chord symbols and period forms to examine such topics as: Fibonacci number and golden mean proportions, Statistics for distinguishing among styles, Self-similarity in form. This second edition includes many new illustrations and concepts, including: Orbit drawings of attractors, Correlation coefficients, Melodic dimensions. It is intended for readers with little mathematical background and requires only algrebra and trigonometry.

--This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Fractals in Music is an interesting crossover between disciplines. It shows how the mathematics of chaos theory and fractal geometry can be applied to understanding music in ways that may be more applicable to the technological age than current musical analysis is.

Advertised as "music theory for the new millennium," it discusses Fibonacci numbers, statistics, and Fourier analysis, as well as randomicity, correlation, and inner/outer form.

Although focusing primarily on classical music, the concepts are equally applicable to popular music or jazz.

Many non-musicians may find Fractals in Music interesting because of its tie to the well-known fractal images that have been popular for the past several years.

About the Author

A science buff since his teen years, Charles Madden was a physics major until music took over his life. As a starving artist, he frequently had to get work to "support his career." Thus he gained experience in fields as varied as electronics and spreadsheets.

Trained at the universities of Brigham Young, Illinois, and Utah, he taught there, and was a composer and pianist for fifteen years.

For the past several years, he has studied the mathematics of chaos theory and fractal geometry, the result of which is this collection of applications to formal musical analysis.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: High Art Pr; 1st edition (August 30, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0967172756
• ISBN-13: 978-0967172750
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,717,550 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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