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