the great genius of Pythagoras...

[Preston]

"By him who handed to our generation the tetractys, source of the roots of ever-flowing nature." - The Pythagoreans swearing their oath to the tetractys

Talking of harmony of cosmos, Philip raised an interesting point (About B representing the Big Bang... which by the way where did they get this information from?) that made me want to finally make the thread about the great genius of Pythagoras. Pythagoras was a great mathematician - it seems he believed that math (not science, ) could explain everything.

If I remember reading correctly he believed that sound could be a basis for the creation of this universe and perhaps beyond.

Also, he invented a twelve tone tuning method which eventually became equal temperament - 2,500 years ago!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythagorean_tuning

I believe he was as great of a genius as any to ever live, and was wondering if any of you knew of his theories, tunings, philosophies, etc.?

[Chris]

Well, I'm sure anyone who has made it through high school knows the Pythagorean Theorem!

[Megan]

Pythagoras was fascinated by the properties of numbers and their application to harmonic intervals. For instance, the interval of the octave is expressible by the ratio 2:1, the 5th, by 3:2 the fourth by 4:3, and the whole tone by 9:8.
Aristotle said that, ''All is number.'' I wonder what this means.
It seems to me it's a description of the structural relation between things expressed in numerical ratios.
To my mind , what this is really saying is that music in a sense isn't music, it is numbers.
I mean , where does music go when it is not being played, it still extists somewhere, but where? What happens when the music stops? which I think Nietzsche asked.
I think I'm going mad.

[Preston]

Pythagoras was fascinated by the properties of numbers and their application to harmonic intervals. For instance, the interval of the octave is expressible by the ratio 2:1, the 5th, by 3:2 the fourth by 4:3, and the whole tone by 9:8.
Aristotle said that, ''All is number.'' I wonder what this means.
It seems to me it's a description of the structural relation between things expressed in numerical ratios.
To my mind , what this is really saying is that music in a sense isn't music, it is numbers.
I mean , where does music go when it is not being played, it still extists somewhere, but where? What happens when the music stops? which I think Nietzsche asked.
I think I'm going mad.

I think those are very sane and fascinating questions, Megan - and questions I cannot answer because of there complexity .

Though, one thing I think is that 12 tone is simply a basis (a very precise and serious basis at that) for a much larger sound world. What fascinates me is that Pythagoras understood the math of sound (and probably sound) to such a degree that he created this 12 tone as a basis for most probably all tones, to my mind?