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How is it that Beethoven, who is celebrated as one of the most significant composers of all time, wrote many of his most beloved songs while going deaf? The answer lies in the math behind his music. Using the “Moonlight Sonata”, we can begin to understand the way Beethoven was able to convey emotion and creativity using the certainty of mathematics.

The standard piano octave consists of 13 keys, each separated by a half step. A standard major or minor scale uses 8 of these keys with 5 whole step intervals and 2 half step ones.

The first half of measure 50 of “Moonlight Sonata” consists of three notes in D major, separated by intervals called thirds that skip over the next note in the scale. By stacking the notes first, third, and fifth notes – D, F sharp, and A – we get a harmonic pattern known as a triad.

But, these aren’t just arbitrary magic numbers. Rather, they represent the mathematical relationship between the pitch frequencies of different notes, which form a geometric series. The stacking of these three frequencies creates ‘consonance’, which sounds naturally pleasant to our ears. Examining Beethoven’s use of both consonance and dissonance can help us begin to understand how he added the unquantifiable elements of emotion and creativity to the certainty of mathematics.

Animation by Qa’ed Mai

Via Ratak Monodosico.

Bust of Beethoven in the room where he was born. Bonn, Germany, 17 December 1770. (photo,1934)

String Quartet no.15 op.132 “Lydian”- Budapest String Quartet.

Hat tip to Karen L. Myers.

Trondheim Soloists. Artistic Director: Øyvind Gimse. Soloist Mari Silje Samuelsen.

Via Ratak Monodosico.

An excerpt from the film, “Salut Salon: Lady-Power im Quartet” by Ralf Pfleger about the Hamburg female quartet, Salut Salon.

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The complete film.

Hieronymus Bosch, detail from The Garden of Earthly Delights tryptich , circa 1503-1504, Museo del Prado, Madrid

Amelia, an undergraduate studying music and informations systems at Oklahoma Christian U., a few days back, served up an interesting little bit piece of musicology.

Luke and I were looking at Hieronymus Bosch’s painting The Garden of Earthly Delights and discovered, much to our amusement, music written upon the posterior of one of the many tortured denizens of the rightmost panel of the painting which is intended to represent Hell. I decided to transcribe it into modern notation, assuming the second line of the staff is C, as is common for chants of this era.

so yes this is LITERALLY the 600-years-old butt song from hell

EDIT: I still can’t believe this took off like it did this is crazy??? Just wanted to let people know that there are indeed errors in the transcription and this is indeed not a very good recording (I threw this together in like 30 minutes at 1 in the morning,) but I’m working with the music department at my college to get the transcription more accurate!

(If Soundcloud embed does not appear, use link)

Hat tips to io9 and Ratak Monodosico.

Played by James Ehnes.

Pretty much the only good thing in the Chan-wook Park Gothic.

Stoker — Piano Duet Scene from Ekel on Vimeo.