The
Math of Music
“Music
is a secret arithmetical exercise and the person who indulges in it
does not realize that he is manipulating numbers.”
G.
Wilhelm Leibniz
I'm
writing this morning from the Mentone Inn. The tiny hamlet of
Mentone, lies just shy of the Georgia line, on the brow of Lookout
Mountain. Long the summer get away for Atlanta's intelligentsia, it
is now a landing place for retired white folks, who want to get back
to their hippy roots. Lots of hugging, back pounding, draping dresses
and hair. But last night, one man, one black man, who goes by the
name of Futureman, came to the Kamama Art Gallery and Cafe, and gave
a two hour clinic on percussion. He attempted to teach us a little
bit about the numerology of music—about pi, iambic pentameter,
about 9's and 10's and 7's, about duality, infinity, symmetry and
rhythm. He quoted Shakespeare to Revel, made music by breaking the
path of a laser, and played an entire piece, his own composition, on
a beat box. I understood only about one-tenth of what he said
(numbers were never my strong suit) but I did enjoy the music.
Watching someone so entirely and passionately wrapped in their own
creative being is a treat, even when you don't get the math.
Music,
of course, is based on a number scale, but most of us relate to it
only as a connection to the universal mystery that speaks directly to
our soul. It is no accident that our attempts to communicate with
other life in the cosmos is by way of musical notes. We are easily
transported by the melodies of Revel, or Vivaldi, Chopin or Bach, to
places we don't often visit in our brains. With music there's an
immediate spiritual connection. Humans have been beating out rhythms
on things since they've been upright. I remember my own little boys
kicking out a beat on the back of the drivers seat, bumpity-bumping
their forks on the table, and jumping in place to music much like the
Masai of Africa. Ancient roots, ancient rhythms live inside our
body/minds just waiting to be activated.
Kamama
is the Cherokee word for butterfly. Sequoia lived just down the
mountain when he developed the written version of the Cherokee
language. Futureman
channeled the Paleolithic rhythms stored in this land for
millenniums. I'm grateful I was here as witness.
In
the Spirit,
Jane
No comments:
Post a Comment