Larry Lesser, The Mathemusician

Selected Resources/References for Educators & Researchers

 
 

Interesting books:

  • Garland and Kahn's Math and Music: Harmonious Connections (Dale Seymour, 1995)
  • Scott Beall's Functional Melodies: Finding Mathematical Relationships in Music (Key Curriculum Press, 2000)
  • Leon Harkleroad's The Math Behind the Music (Cambridge U. Press, 2006)
  • David Benson’s Music: A Mathematical Offering (Cambridge University Press; 2006)
  • David Temperley’s Music and Probability (MIT Press, 2007)
  • Gareth Loy’s Musimathics: The Mathematical Foundations of Music (MIT Press; 2006, 2007)
  • Fauvel, Flood & Wilson’s Music and Mathematics: From Pythagoras to Fractals (Oxford University Press, 2006)
  • Jan Beran’s Statistics in Musicology (Chapman & Hall/CRC, 2004). 

Note: the above books vary greatly in their level of technical precision and in classroom applicability, so browse before buying!

Interesting articles:

Articles on a more advanced level:

Some bibliography for educational uses of song:  See www.songsforteaching.com/references.htm and the article by Crowther in March/April 2006 Connect.  VanVoorhis (in Teaching of Psychology, 29(3), 249-250) researched the effectiveness of using jingles for learning particular statistics concepts. While teaching psychology statistics students in two sections (whose grade-point-averages were statistically equivalent), VanVoorhis had three definitions read aloud in one section and had statistics jingles sung for the same concepts in the other section.  On four short-answer test items (maximum score of 9 points), the singing section did better (t69 = 2.01, p < .05) and also had a statistically significant correlation (r31 = .37, p = .04) between test score and self-rated familiarity with the jingle.  Other kinds of articles we’ve seen include F. Rauscher et.al. (“Music training causes long-term enhancement of preschool children’s spatial-temporal reasoning”; Neurological Research, Feb. 1997, pp. 2-8) and E.G. Schellenberg (“Music lessons enhance IQ”; Psychological Science, 15, 8, 511-514).

Searchable song databases:

Applets/Videos/Software:

Mathematically-generated compositions:

 

And finally, there are performing musical groups whose songs are packed with mathematical language, ranging from the Klein Four Group to performers who use mathematical themes or language in some of their songs (e.g., The Mathematicians; Jonathan Coulton).  And there are plenty of other individual math teachers who write and compile math songs, such as: #1 and #2.  Those teachers and students writing their own songs will find useful songwriting resources listed in my May 2000 Mathematics Teacher article, and online resources such as http://www.rhymezone.com and http://www.onelook.com.  For those interested in mathematical poems, I recommend these articles: Keller & Davidson's in the May 2001 Mathematics Teacher, Growney’s in October 2006 J. of Online Mathematics and its Applications, Growney’s in J. of Mathematics and the Arts (2008; 2(1), pp.1-7)

 

 

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