Sunday, November 13, 2011

Music and Mathematics – A Comparison

The deciphering or decoding of music is unknown to me. I believe that it must have evolved proportional to the evolution of the language. The fundamental sounds or axioms reveal a strong mathematical base, typical of man’s intuitive response to music. It would be of great interest to the historian or (in actuality, if I should meet the standards of precision) the musical linguist to uncover the identity of various sounds and the implications it has to the musical genius (musician). In my view, a romance with the sounds, purely mathematical in design, has led to music and will continue to do so. The supportive reason that all music and its types have the same classical base or should I say the same mathematical foundation establishes this thought. Since romance is both sweet and unreasonable, such a fine feeling can lead to beauty appealing to all senses. Sounds reveal a sequence of octaves which, when heard in that manner, appeals scientifically but neither emotionally nor sensually. However, imagining these octaves to have a subtle underlying significance with a lovely attachment to a child like innocence conceives the music. Such a conception is a result of the combination of romance and mathematics or one can say the combination of imagination and logic.

I am not in any way reducing music to mathematics; in fact, music, I would say, is a lot friendlier and sweeter. Einstein, the great mathematician and scientist, himself felt that imagination has greater significance than knowledge. In mathematics, the objective truth has “reason” to be correct. In music, the subjective imagination has “feeling” to be sweet. There can be no room for a debate in favour of true or untrue music.

Sweet music in its fine form, while it may be imperfect and unreasonable, reveals an appealing and imaginative chord that strokes the innocence in man. Cacophony, on the other hand, strikes the ear drums and ensures their destruction. Cacophony is a sneer on both mathematics (classical sounds) and music.

Imperfection makes music wonderful while perfection reduces it to the dismal and dull monotony of applied mathematics. Depth makes pure mathematics insightful but shallow mathematics has appeal only commercially. An explanation in this manner relates the brilliance of mathematics to the melody of music.

Saturday, November 12, 2011

A Forbidden Ace

It has been years since I opened the cage
I let the bird out to find its life
But it keeps flying around me in circles
I realise it's the same with my own freedom.

Haiku

A sinking fortune,

Human spirit in fear;

Please rebuild the ship.

Zen

Time murders moments
To lose itself forever
Without reflection.

Zen

Starved of romance
Urban man speaks to the river;
She makes him cold.

Jagdeesh - Vision Without Words

Slipping away into a lazy sleep
From heart, from mind and kin
With eyes opened calling out 'Jagdeesh';
He holds on to a trembling silence
Hanging down his immortal hat
Seldom a word he utters
Leaving his eyes to speak in whispers
'Silence speaks louder than words'.

Friday, November 11, 2011

Where the Candle Fades Inside

We are smiling in a sinking ship

The cartridge is low, power grows old

But we remain cheerful in the ship.

The joys of the evening fade away

But not us swimming like flowers

That do not lose colour

Happy to let go of old habits

Dying beneath the sky like rivulets

Shallow in the opening run deep in the mind

Casting bright lights from the outside

But dim is the burning flame inside

The ink is short of a mirror

We don’t know who we are

The ship is sinking and we are smiling

Aren’t we happy to sink within

To give it our base company

That holds us to its doom

But we pretend to be sure

Of where we would land

For we do not think it likely

To ever hit the base

Not as long as the heart sinks

And the mind crumbles like forgotten dust

But we are happy to sink and so we smile

For joy is not everything and neither is life

We too were hopeful and wanted joy

And now we sink with the ship

Whose captain no longer pretends;

We killed no albatross; we had no pride

But today we retract like flowers

Or birds if you may.

For this life lived with guilt is not worth our time;

So we now look forward to a place

Where the candle fades inside.