5 ms·
John Coltrane illustrates the mathematics of jazz
- deleted 6mo ago[deleted]
- taylorbuley 6mo agoI notice it's a double ring, not a single circle. Two concentric chromatic rings, offset. That's not decoration: the outer ring and inner ring are the same field read at a phase offset (looks like a tritone / minor-third rotation). Fault tolerance!
- contingencies 6mo agoProto-supersaw! https://static1.squarespace.com/static/519a384ee4b0079d49c8a1f2/t/592c9030a5790abc03d9df21/1496092742864/An+Analysis+of+Roland%27s+Super+Saw+Oscillator+and+its+Relation+to+Pads+within+Trance+Music+-+Research+Project+-+A.+Shore.pdf https://static1.squarespace.com/static/519a384ee4b0079d49c8a...
- SoleilAbsolu 6mo agoActually appears to be 2 concentric whole-tone rings, not chromatic.
- jejejejejajajaj 6mo ago[flagged]
- rectang 6mo agoThe Coltrane changes are great, but on the scale of other harmonic innovations over the years inside Jazz and other traditions. They aren't analogous to Einstein. What makes Giant Steps so amazing is the sheer speed at which those changes go past — if you slow it down, it's not that different from other Jazz tunes. It took took years of practice for Coltrane to acquire the specialized skillset for improvising over Giant Steps.
- cloudfudge 6mo agoAs someone who's really into music theory, I am always annoyed by what I perceive as a patronizing faux exaltation of it supposedly being mathematically based. It's not math; it's cyclical patterns. Yes, it can all be represented mathematically, and it is surprising to some people how something with feeling can map to these interesting cycles of discrete values in unexpectedly regular ways, and there are very interesting mathematical ratios involved, but that doesn't make it math. I don't think we need to pat John Coltrane on the head and talk about how he's actually kind of smart because he's doing math.
- Pay08 6mo agoAh, so it's the cooking of chemistry.
- fc417fc802 6mo agoThat's an excellent comparison and it raises an interesting question. When cooking a basic understanding of chemistry techniques will generally prove quite useful but when it comes to music I'm not so sure about math. Maybe some electronic artists who write their own tools?
- Pay08 6mo agoI'm certainly no chef, and am only somewhat familiar with one particular side of chemistry (physical chemistry) but I don't see how it would be useful in cooking. Unless you count boiling water as chemistry.
- fc417fc802 6mo agoThe logic behind organic extractions, the temperatures at which different things oxidize or otherwise degrade, the temperature dependence of reaction kinetics (it's nonlinear which is incredibly important when you want one thing but not another), the thermal transfer characteristics of different materials and configurations, all sorts of stuff. The actual "doing" in cooking and baking is figuratively 95% chemistry (and 5% biology) even if the goal is different. You don't see as much of that mindset in the mainstream of the layman but it's how all industrial processing is done. As an arbitrary example, given a process involving yeast you can construct time vs temp vs moisture vs salt curves to model its behavior.
- moogly 6mo agoOdd to mention Einstein and not Slonimsky, whose work he studied a lot and built upon.
- evanb 6mo agoI don't remember much about music theory but I know enough about symmetry to know that there's a mistake in the diagram at 9 o'clock.
- navane 6mo agoYeah but only in the heart shaped circles. The middle of the hearts are the classic circle of fifths. In this circle they show where the half steps in the scales are.
- mellosouls 6mo agoOriginal article should be the link (2017 btw): https://www.openculture.com/2017/04/the-tone-circle-john-coltrane-drew-to-illustrate-the-theory-behind-his-most-famous-compositions-1967.html https://www.openculture.com/2017/04/the-tone-circle-john-col...
- huflungdung 6mo ago[dead]