ARTS & HUMANITIES, STEM, RESEARCH, UNIVERSITY OF ST

ANDREWS

Maths and Music: The

importance of
interdisciplinary study
A reflection on the motivation for my research
project and the benefits of interdisciplinary study.

Molly Chung
Jul 01, 2019

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Knowing that I would have to completely

immerse myself in a topic for 10 weeks, I wanted
to choose a research project that I would truly
enjoy pursuing. With none of the pre-defined
project titles particularly catching my eye, and
with pure maths and music being my two main
academic interests, I came up with the title of a
self-defined project, ‘Investigating Mathematical
Patterns in Music’.

This is incredibly broad (since mathematical

patterns can be found in almost all aspects of
music e.g. melodic patterns, rhythmic patterns,
timbral patterns, patterns in the sound waves
themselves, patterns common to particular
musical genres etc.), so we narrowed it down to
looking at twelve tone technique, which involves
manipulating a tone row, an ordered sequence of
the twelve tones in a chromatic scale, by applying
various transformations such
as retrograde (reversing the order of the
sequence’s pitches so that the first pitch becomes
the last and the last pitch becomes the first)
and inversion (reversing the intervals between
each pitch), to develop melodic material.

A diagram (created by me) showing

the e!ects of retrograde and
inversion on a tone row.

The aim of this project is to find out whether

composers bias towards using certain
transformations and creating certain patterns, or
whether they use the full range of cases available
to them. To do this, we have used abstract algebra,
an area in pure mathematics which looks at
algebraic structures rather than numbers.

This summer I spent most of my time looking

into the mathematical side of things,
familiarising myself with the relevant knowledge
I will need for analysing the music and thus
collecting data. With the experimental work
happening next summer, I thought it would
make sense to save the details of my findings
until later, and tell you more about the
motivation for this particular project instead.

Abstract Algebra and Twelve

Tone Technique
You may be familiar with the idea that there are
connections between mathematics and music.
However, you may not be aware that abstract
algebra heavily ties in with music, or even that
abstract algebra exists at all.

‘Non-mathematicians’ never usually get the

chance to encounter abstract algebra which I
think is a real shame, because for me it is my
favourite branch of mathematics, yet it is perhaps
one of the furthest from what you find in the
school curriculum. However, this is not to say
that it is hard to understand, as like with all
mathematics, if explained well, it can be
understood by anyone. So I guess the ultimate
long-term goal of this project is to not only
extend the connotations of ‘maths and music’ to
abstract algebra on top of the more typical
connotations of musical theory requiring a
‘mathematical mindset’, and the physics of sound
waves, but to also popularise the branch of
abstract algebra itself, and thus the area of pure
mathematics in general – something that not
many people get the pleasure of encountering,
especially after obtaining the common
perception that maths is all about using formulae
and performing calculations from school.

Furthermore, this project is yet another example

of how mathematical concepts can be applied to
a completely di!erent context. Often when
people learn maths, a frequently asked question
is always ‘what’s the point?’. Therefore it is
incredibly important to make people aware of the
applications of even the most abstract
mathematics, and remind people that these
applications can lead you to make fascinating
discoveries that can tell you so much.

I found there was a lot of overlap between

abstract algebra and modern 20th century music.
Having grown up with a fondness of music in an
academic setting, I have always kept an open
mind to di!erent types of music and enjoy
listening to almost all genres. However, some of
the more obscure 20th century music, including
twelve-tone music (which is often not very
listener-friendly at all!), is something which I
have always struggled to fully appreciate.
Therefore, I saw this project as an opportunity to
learn more about it, as I truly believe that the
more you understand something, the easier it is
to see the underlying beauty. This may sound like
an awful risk considering I would need to spend
10 weeks on it, but I knew that the possibility of
me being able to appreciate something I have not
been able to appreciate before, and being able to
share this appreciation with others, would make
it totally worth the risk. Consequently, it gave me
the opportunity to demonstrate one of my
overall favourite things about music: on the
surface, it can seem meaningless, but the deeper
you immerse yourself in it, the more meaningful
it becomes.

Inevitably there will be genres of music that

people are not the greatest fan of at first, but
di!erent perspectives (in this case, a
mathematical perspective) can give people
another way, and thus, another chance, of being
able to appreciate them. After all, people learn
and understand things in di!erent ways, but just
because a person does not understand something
via one way, does not mean they should be
deprived of understanding it completely.

Maths and Music

Various mathematicians have been popularising
the connections between mathematics and music,
so I urge you to read some of the articles they
have written, or watch some of the talks they
have given, as I found many were super engaging
and highlighted some of the connections
extremely well.

It is generally considered that mathematics is the

most abstract of the sciences, and music is the
most abstract of the arts, so it would seem
intuitive that they would complement each other
to some extent. The hot debate lies more around
the idea that music contains too much emotion
to be somewhat rationalised by mathematics, but
I believe that Marcus du Sautoy constructs
a perfect response as to why this is not the case.

That aside, it was really rewarding doing a

project which combined maths and music – I
found myself improving my knowledge in both
subjects, and it was so satisfying to discover more
and more connections between the two, whilst
also being prompted to view things from
di!erent perspectives to either find out new
things, or strengthen things I already knew in
one subject but had not realised in the other,
allowing for more new things to happen. This
enabled me to nurture my a"nity with both even
further, as I got to witness how they interact with
each other in both ways that I would and would
not have intuitively thought. It was an alternating
cycle of curiosity and discovery that fuelled my
motivation to continue doing research.

Importance of Interdisciplinary
Study
I do realise that mathematics and music is not
absolutely everyone’s cup of tea, so here is a
summary of the reasons why interdisciplinary
study is so important no matter which subjects
are involved, drawn from my experiences
throughout this project and the points raised
above:

It widens an appreciation for both subjects

– it encourages people to gain new
knowledge and new passions in di!erent
subject areas, and may even help people get
over their academic fears in the process
It makes learning more meaningful –
seeing the applications of subjects makes
learning more enjoyable and memorable,
and being more interested encourages
people to dig deeper
It encourages you to realise more e"cient
ways to learn – having more than one
perspective to look at things enables you to
explore alternative learning pathways,
enhancing the learning experience
It helps you to progress – viewing things
from multiple perspectives helps you to see
things in a new light and helps you spot
things you would not have spotted
otherwise
It helps you discover unexplored areas –
you find gaps in research that have been
missed due to lack of collaboration with the
knowledgeable people
It helps you develop critical thinking skills
and creativity – making mental
comparisons between subject areas
prompts you to think deeply and consider
new possibilities

I may not have managed to persuade you to

embark on a maths postdoctorate or to become a
musicologist, but I hope you can still take away
the fact that interdisciplinary study is hugely
beneficial to both learning and research, and
perhaps this may convince you to take some time
to explore the connections between various
disciplines you personally enjoy yourself.

I would like to say a huge thank you to my supervisor,

Professor Peter Cameron, for his insightful advice and
support, Lord Laidlaw for allowing me to undertake
this research project, and the Laidlaw team for
organising such a brilliant programme.