Geometry humming

Guy Murchie (1907-1997). Reporter. Pilot. Artist. Poet. War correspondent; photographer; biologist. Wanderer, roamer, dreamer, thinker.

Music mesmerized Guy Murchie. Energy compelled him to explore. What did he explore? All sorts of places. Those physical. Those intellectual. And, certainly, realms both spiritual and philosophical.

Music of the Spheres. Song of the Sky. These are two of the books written by Murchie. Two of the most beautiful books I’ve ever read. He’s influenced me often and again, Guy Murchie. Subtly.

Music of the Spheres Concert (Lick Observatory). Photo by Jeremy Zawodny. Click image to link to Lick Observatory's site.

At the intersection of geometry and music

Plenty has been written about the phrase, “music of the spheres,” a description uttered by Pythagoras, who paired geometry with music.

Although Pythagoras’ tenets hold too much mysticism for me, I do regard music as having the same lucid elegance as geometry. This duality has tugged at the mind of many a ponderer, including theorists Vincenzo Galilei and Dmitri Tymoczko. And what about Hypatia of Alexandria? Did she wonder how music meshed with geometry?

A familiar threshold in an unfamiliar place

My research trek for this topic, for a previous blog of mine, brought me references to Ibn Sina, the Muslim scientist who investigated physics, mathematics, music, and other disciplines. During my first visit to the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, I turned along a virtual corridor and found a familiar portal. For now, I’m satisfied. Temporarily.

POSTSCRIPT: Check out System of Inequalities, a punk song about math, by Rachel and Skye (who were in 10th grade at the time of their collaboration).

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