Last night I watched Virtuoso, an episode of Voyager about a technologically advanced race who had never encountered music. The Doctor is more then happy to introduce them to the concept. The Qomar are fascinated by the mathematics of music and song and spend much time inciting the Doctor to sing for them.
Today I was in the subway and there happened to be a man playing an electric violin. It was absolutely beautiful.
Music is, as the Qomar say, essentially mathematics. But there is something so much more to it. Music is deep and enticing. It speaks to the soul, it comes from the soul. Math, while beautiful and wondrous is cold and fixed(abstractions and number arbitration not withstanding.) The two, math and soul, fixed and flowing, combine and, when done properly, create the most beautiful sounds in existence. Music without soul is not music at all, it is simply numbers.
The Cardiac Cycle
2 months ago
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