Technology and Music – Baroque, Boole, Binary, Beams, and Bach

Technology and Music – Baroque, Boole, Binary, Beams, and Bach

Is this merely a clever alliteration or a deep connection between science, mathematics, and western culture entirely overlooked? The following seeks to join these five B's in an intimate manner, bringing to light this seemingly complex connection.

Part I: Baroque and Bach

Chromaticism and elaborate forms of ornamentation characterize the Baroque period of music. In fact, this period, lasting from the late sixteenth century through the early eighteenth century, marked the first period in which composers truly used harmony in music. In addition, this period brought to fame many composers whose music is still enjoyed today including Pachelbel, Handel, Haydn, Vivaldi, and Bach. Born in 1685, Johann Sebastian Bach (hereafter Bach) made himself one of the most renowned western composers of all time. Johann Ambrosia Bach, Bach's father, and Johann Christoph Bach, Bach's brother, trained Bach in music at a very young age. In 1703 at the age of 18, Bach began a series of jobs as organist in Arstadt. Twenty years later, Bach became cantor and choral director at St. Thomas Church in Leipzig. He held this distinguished position until his death.

Before his death in 1750, though, Bach had had two wives (the first died in 1720) and 20 children some of whom became musicians as well. He had written such notable pieces as the Brandenburg concertos, "The Art of the Fugue," various religious compositions including the "Mass in B minor" and the "St. John Passion," numerous fugues, preludes and overtures, and more than 300 cantatas.

Bach's "Overture Number 3: Air" is a composition often played at weddings, graduations and the like. Though it is only about four and one half minutes in length, it is one of my personal favorites, and will be noted later as this odd connection continues.

Part II: Boole and Binary

George Boole, a self-taught mathematician and logician, was born in England in 1815 (approximately 65 years after Bach's death). In 1854, he published "An Investigation of the Laws of Thought, on Which Are Founded the Mathematical Theories of Logic and Probabilities." Therein can be found the basis for substituting symbols for the words in the language of logic, thus Boolean algebra is born.

Today, computer scientists often use Boolean to relate sets of data. Using the words AND, OR, NOT, IF, and EXCEPT, a Boolean algebraist can determine the truth of a statement as well as rewrite the statement in a more understandable form.