Bill Pirkle comments on Jon Gallant's points

>I've always heard that there is a strong relationship between mathematics
>and music and since I was a math major and am a composer, I will tell
>you what it is for me (your mileage may vary). For me both are forms of
>architecture. In music small musical ideas are used as building blocks
>- combined, structured, transformed, etc. into large architectural works
>that exist as a cohesive whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.
>In math, small ideas, say the axioms of a field, are combined, structured,
>and transformed into a whole (the field) that is greater than the sum
>of its parts.

So many things are like that.  I think of it as composition, i.e.  you
have parts, which make up a whole, which is greater than the sum of the
parts.  Composition is essential to all of the arts, including art,
music, literature, dance, etc...

>Both math and music proceed through time in that you have to carefully use
>what you have established as true (in math) or significant (in music) as
>progenitors to the next level.

Although time is a basic component of music, there is much in common
between the various art mediums.  For example, rhythm can be found in
painting, and color can be found in music.

Mike