Nature Has A Good Beat, But Can You Dance To It?

NPR:

Rhythm in music is about timing — when notes start and stop. And now scientists say they’ve found a curious pattern that’s common to musical rhythm. It’s a pattern also found in nature.

Let’s consider now some new research on rhythm. Rhythm in music is about timing – when notes start and stop. What makes for that swing? Scientists say they’ve found a curious pattern that’s common to musical rhythm, and it’s a pattern also found in nature. NPR’s Christopher Joyce has the story.

Psychologist Daniel Levitin plays the saxophone. Lately, though, he’s been feeding musical scores into a computer – 558 musical scores, in fact, spanning four centuries. And he found a pattern in their rhythms. It’s produced by a mathematical equation that also creates patterns in nature.

Read the whole story: NPR

See Daniel Levitin at the 24th APS Annual Convention

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