Leslie Bruder replies to Deryk Barker:

>>Moreover, where in music, are the equivalents of theorems and proofs?
>
>Key to understanding the relationship(s) between music and mathematics
>is to see them as symbolic systems, languages basically, which could
>possibly be reduced further to "code."

All that means is that both are symbolic systems.  Okay.  So are literature
and painting.  So is Bingo.  So is highway signage.

One thing that mathematics allows you to do is to predict the outcome
of a situation you haven't met before, related to the real world or not.
This is, of course, accomplished by building on a collection of theorems
and proofs.  Mathematics may allow you to describe something you already
know (in that sense, EVERYTHING -- or nearly -- is math).  But without
that predictive power, there's no real advantage to prefer a mathematical
description over a loose, verbal one, except that mathematics, as the
Queen of Sciences, enjoys the prestige of science among a non-scientific
community, whose only contact with science or mathematics comes at third-
or fourth-hand through engineering and technology.

Steve Schwartz