Golden Ratio and Music

The main body of the LCC and its practical application, including all 4 published versions of Book 1 with their inserts: the 1959 tan cover; the 1959 light green cover Japanese edition; the 1970‘s white cover, which adds an illustrated River Trip to the 1959 edition, and the currently available Fourth Edition, 2001.

The authorization code is the first word on Page 198 of the Fourth Edition of the LCCTO.

Moderators: bobappleton, sandywilliams

Forum rules
An open letter from Alice Russell. June 21, 2011, Brookline, Massachusetts. 1. DO NOT make insulting, mean spirited remarks about anyone or their work; there are a plethora of sites where you can rant unfettered. If you attack someone personally, your comments will be removed. You can post it, but I'm not paying for it. Go elsewhere, and let those artists who are actually interested in discussion and learning have the floor. 2. There will be NO posting of or links to copyrighted material without permission of the copyright owner. That's the law. And if you respect the work of people who make meaningful contributions, you should have no problem following this policy. 3. I appreciate many of the postings from so many of you. Please don't feel you have to spend your time "defending" the LCC to those who come here with the express purpose of disproving it. George worked for decades to disprove it himself; if you know his music, there's no question that it has gravity. And a final word: George was famous for his refusal to lower his standards in all areas of his life, no matter the cost. He twice refused concerts of his music at Lincoln Center Jazz because of their early position on what was authentically jazz. So save any speculation about the level of him as an artist and a man. The quotes on our websites were not written by George; they were written by critics/writers/scholars/fans over many years. Sincerely, Alice
Post Reply
Andrew
Posts: 41
Joined: Thu Sep 21, 2006 12:42 pm
Location: Washington State
Contact:

Golden Ratio and Music

Post by Andrew »

I'm wondering if any of you has studied the Golden Ratio and its effects on music. I just barely discovered that there is research relating music to the golden ratio. What I've heard so far is come composers either conscious or unconscious use of the ratio in determining where to present the climax of a piece.
"Life finds a way"- Wayne Shorter
sandywilliams
Posts: 201
Joined: Tue Sep 05, 2006 9:17 pm

Post by sandywilliams »

Bartok!
bobappleton
Posts: 355
Joined: Mon Sep 04, 2006 8:57 pm
Location: Toronto, Canada
Contact:

Post by bobappleton »

Yes I have. Great subject.

I like to think the Golden Ratio has roughly the same meaning to an artist as the Overtone Series has to a musician (even though they're mathematically different).

The proportion 1:3 is a good place to start. In an image that's foreground, mid-ground and background, or in Jazz ABA.

If you include The Fibonacci Series you can add Stockhausen, Cage and Xenakis to the list of musicians - and it goes on from there.


;)
dogbite
Posts: 82
Joined: Fri Mar 23, 2007 11:13 pm

Post by dogbite »

schillinger
bobappleton
Posts: 355
Joined: Mon Sep 04, 2006 8:57 pm
Location: Toronto, Canada
Contact:

Post by bobappleton »

Just to clarify my reference to 1:3. If you look at the drawings of DaVinci's profile, the Golden Section or the Golden Ratio in Wikipedia's Golden Ratio section, you'll see that these images have (approximately) 3 equal parts.
dds1234
Posts: 66
Joined: Tue Apr 10, 2007 12:54 am

Post by dds1234 »

So, I was listening to an album of environmental sounds and... To my surprise it followed, in climactic context, the golden ratio dead on!

Golden ratio in nature!?
-I think not, I suppose that it was chosen as the main track for this reason.

*bump*
Post Reply