What Makes Music Tick?

There's an interesting article called "Mapping Music" in the new issue of Harvard magazine. It describes the efforts of a Harvard researcher to determine mathematically and statistically why certain melodies and chord groupings are pleasing to the ear. It's well known that math and music go hand in hand (think octaves, triads, sevenths, etc.) and I've read elsewhere of research into the mathematic structures of Bach compositions. So it seems Dmitri Tymoczko (pronounced tim-OSS-ko) may be on the verge of uncovering some powerful truths not just about music, but about how our minds work. Here's a sample:

Humans seem to have an instinct for music. Certain songs have a quality that makes us want to tap our toes and sing along. We can’t quite say what makes good music, but we know it when we hear it. Sheet music, which tells musicians very precisely which notes to play and when, provides little clue to that mystical ingredient, but Dmitri Tymoczko ’91 has devised a new way to map music that aims to do just that.

(snip)

He envisions using the mapping system to help schoolchildren understand music. Other applications might include computer programs for composing and analyzing music, and maybe even the invention of new instruments whose design makes it easy to play pleasing compositions. He is less sanguine about applications for the recording industry. “It’s probably not going to tell you why one Britney Spears song sells and another one doesn’t,” he says, because most pop music songs already consist of familiar, pleasing chords rearranged in various pleasing orders. In other words, pop music producers have already figured out, intuitively, what Tymoczko’s mapping system shows.

Read the article online, or download a PDF of it.