Product Description

Since the time of the Ancient Greeks, much has been written about the relation between mathematics and music: from harmony and number theory, to musical patterns and group theory. Benson provides a wealth of information here to enable the teacher, the student, or the interested amateur to understand, at varying levels of technicality, the real interplay between these two ancient disciplines. The story is long as well as broad and involves physics, biology, psycho acoustics, the history of science, and digital technology as well as, of course, mathematics and music. Starting with the structure of the human ear and its relationship with Fourier analysis, the story proceeds via the mathematics of musical instruments to the ideas of consonance and dissonance, and then to scales and temperaments. This is a must-have book if you want to know about the music of the spheres or digital music and many things in between.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #71700 in Books
• Published on: 2006-11-23
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 426 pages

Review
'… informative and well-written … Not only does this book cover basic material thoroughly, it also presents much of interest to those already familiar with the area of math and music. And the author provides a wealth of citations to the often scattered literature on the subject.' Zentralblatt MATH

'… an excellent introduction to the interdisciplinary subject of music and mathematics (which also involves physics, biology, psycho-acoustics, and the history of science and digital technology). The book can easily be used as the text for undergraduate courses.' The Mathematical Intelligencer

About the Author
David J. Benson is a 6th Century Professor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at the University of Aberdeen.

Customer Reviews

Comprehensive and error free
For many years, Dave Benson published early versions of this text online (you can still get an online version from his website) and that public exposure has pretty much worked all the errors out of the text. No doubt the feedback that Benson received has also helped improve the text in other ways. I have to say that I find it hard to find much wrong with this book. I use many sections for my teaching (I lecture in music at University) and always find the book full of inspirational ideas. If the maths is too tough in places, you can skip over it to the next general section with impunity.

CUP have said that Benson can continue to publish his text online but, at over 500 pages, the book is a far better bet. Only criticism is that the hardback is a too expensive for undergraduate students. Even the paperback version is a little pricey. However, top marks for this thorough work.