Ran into an article called Mapping Music in Harvard Magazine that describes Dmitri Tymoczko’s theory on how to map musical chords so as to understand why certain music is more pleasing to hear than others. The theory is apparently the first significant scientific discovery in music theory in at least the past 127 years. The map uses a multi-dimension orbifold to visually describe musical chords. Shown below is a 3D map for 3 note chords.
You can also watch a video which provides an animation of a 4D orbifold depicting Chopin’s hermetic E minor prelude.
Though the big record producers have already unlocked the secrets to pop music without Tymoczko’s help, Dmitry believes this theory may help create new compositions and instruments more ideal to producing music that’s appealing to hear.
I just wonder if this means we may be entering an era where a computer can finally compose music “better” than Mozart… as when deep blue beat Kasparov in ‘97.
I guess this will be stuck in my head until I wrap my head completely around Tymoczko’s theory… yes, this may take a while…
