Date: Mon, 22 Sep 1997 22:56:27 -0500 (CDT)
From: Dave Rusin <rusin>
To: mjsuarez@erols.com
Subject: Re:  math and music

The fact that the topics have been considered before does not make them
poor topics for a high school project. I would think that reading and
summarizing some of the texts on the subject would be plenty, if done well.
If you're really keen on doing something new, you always have the option
of analyzing new music to see how it relates to previous trends. Take,
for example, that piece by Gorecki which was nearly a crossover hit 
(from classical to pop) a few years ago; because of its recent vintage,
it's probably not been looked at from the mathematical perspective.
The music is rather simple but quite haunting and engaging; is there
some reason why? is there, for example, a quantifiable pattern in the
chord progressions (in the accompaniment, of course; it's written as
a soprano solo).
Or consider rhythm patterns, a topic scarcely touched in the files in
my directory. Clearly any rhythm which obeys measure boundaries is
trying partitions of a fixed time interval into several fractions
(e.g. 4 1/4-notes, 3 1/2-note triplets, etc.) What kinds of such
decompositions are used in various musical styles? What's favored in
the Top-40 of today? For variety, look for offbeat rhythm patterns
(e.g. Andrew Lloyd Weber has used a lot of 5/4 and so on; listen
to J.C.Superstar. Did you ever beat out "Everything's All Right"?)
(Our local Catholic church uses a hymnal -- I think its called "Gather" --
which features quite a few pieces using 9/4, 13/8, and other unusual
rhythms. Ancient chant had some quirky rhythm patterns too.)
Good luck!
dave