The sounding algebra
relations between combinatorics and music from Mersenne to Euler
pp. 27-48
in: Gérard Assayag, Hans G. Feichtinger, José F. Rodrigues (eds), Mathematics and music, Berlin, Springer, 2002Abstract
The baroque conception of music was based on a rational, mathematical foundation. Musicologists and composers of that period cited again and again the biblical verse that God had ordered ("disposuisti") the whole world through measure, number, and weight (Wisdom 11, 20). Beauty, harmony consist in order, numbers play a crucial role in this regard.
