Music, Math, and Mind Book Coming From David Sulzer

Source: Columbia University Press.

David Sulzer’s debut book, Music, Math, and Mind, offers a lively exploration of the mathematics, physics, and neuroscience that underlie music in a way that readers without scientific background can follow.

Dr. Sulzer, also known in the musical world as Dave Soldier, explains why the perception of music encompasses the physics of sound, the functions of the ear and deep-brain auditory pathways, and the physiology of emotion. He delves into topics such as the math by which musical scales, rhythms, tuning, and harmonies are derived, from the days of Pythagoras to technological manipulation of sound waves. Sulzer makes accessible a vast range of material—styles from around the world to canonical composers to hip-hop, the history of experimental music, and animal music by songbirds, cetaceans, bats, and insects.