Song of the Day: The Musical Offering, BWV 1079 - Ricercar a 3 - Johann Sebastian Bach
Quote of the Day: "Employ your time in improving yourself by other men's writings so that you shall come easily by what others have labored hard for." --Socrates
Thought of the Day: Recently began re-reading a favorite book: Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid (A Metaphorical Fugue on Minds and Machines in the Spirit of Lewis Carroll). This is a brilliant book which describes the shared patterns of beauty found in works of Math (Godel), Art (M.C. Escher), and Music (J.S.Bach). My song of the day today is J.S.Bach's Musical Offering, a masterpiece which is built around the musical (and somewhat mathematical) concept of the "canon". The "canon" is essentially taking one pattern and shifting it around (delaying it in time, speeding it up, modifying starting pitch, "inverting" it, etc). The superimposed parts create beautiful harmonies. The genius of Bach, in my view, is that he was able to create such complex mathematical patterns in his music without having the works sound formulaic or boxy. Also amazing is that he was able to improvise multi-part cannons on the spot, a tremendously difficult mental exercise!
Cheers, Dr. Kowawa
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