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The Other Side of History: Daily Life in the Ancient World (Transcript)
The Other Side of History: Daily Life in the Ancient World (Transcript)
The Other Side of History: Daily Life in the Ancient World (Transcript)
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The Other Side of History: Daily Life in the Ancient World (Transcript)

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The Other Side of History: Daily Life in the Ancient World is the companion book to the audio/video series of the same name. It contains a full transcript of the series as well as the complete course guidebook which includes lecture notes, bibliography, and more.

About this series:

Gain new perspective on two of the greatest achievements of human culture—music and math—and the fascinating connections that will help you more
fully appreciate the intricacies of both.

Great minds have long sought to understand the relationship between music and mathematics. On the surface, they seem very different. Music delights the senses and can express the most profound emotions, while mathematics appeals to the intellect and is the model of pure reasoning.

Yet music and mathematics are connected in fundamental ways. Both involve patterns, structures, and relationships. Both generate ideas of great beauty and elegance. Music is a fertile testing ground for mathematical principles, while mathematics explains the sounds instruments make and how composers put those sounds together. Moreover, the practitioners of both share many qualities, including abstract thinking, creativity, and intense focus.

Understanding the connections between music and mathematics helps you appreciate both, even if you have no special ability in either field—from knowing the mathematics behind tuning an instrument to understanding the features that define your favorite pieces. By exploring the mathematics of music, you also learn why non-Western music sounds so different, gain insight into the technology of modern sound reproduction, and start to hear the world around you in exciting new ways.

Among the insights offered by the study of music and mathematics together are these:

Harmonic series: The very concept of musical harmony comes from mathematics, dating to antiquity and the discovery that notes sounded together on a stringed instrument are most pleasing when the string lengths are simple ratios of each other. Harmonic series show up in many areas of applied mathematics.
"Air on the G String": One of Bach's most-loved pieces was transposed to a single string of the violin—the G string—to give it a more pensive quality. The mathematics of overtones explains why this simple change makes a big difference, even though the intervals between notes remain unchanged.
Auditory illusions: All voices on cell phones should sound female because of the frequency limits of the tiny speakers. But the human brain analyzes the overtone patterns to reconstruct missing information, enabling us to hear frequencies that aren't there. Such auditory illusions are exploited by composers and instrument makers.
Atonal music: Modern concert music is often atonal, deliberately written without a tonal center or key. The composer Arnold Schoenberg used the mathematics of group theory to set up what he called a "pan-tonal" system. Understanding his compositional rules adds a new dimension to the appreciation of this revolutionary music.

In 12 dazzling lectures, How Music and Mathematics Relate gives you a new perspective on two of the greatest achievements of human culture: music and mathematics. At 45 minutes each, these lectures are packed with information and musical examples from Bach, Mozart, and Tchaikovsky to haunting melodies from China, India, and Indonesia. There are lively and surprising insights for everyone, from music lovers to anyone who has ever been intrigued by mathematics. No expertise in either music or higher-level mathematics is required to appreciate this astonishing alliance between art and science.

A Unique Teacher

It is a rare person who has the background to teach both of these subjects. But How Music and Mathematics Relate presents just such an educator: David Kung, Professor of Mathematics at St. Mary's College of Maryland, one of the nation's most prestigious public liberal arts colleges. An award-winning teacher, mathematician, and musician, Professor Kung
LanguageEnglish
Release dateSep 1, 2012
ISBN9781598038620
The Other Side of History: Daily Life in the Ancient World (Transcript)

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
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    If you've ever listened to lectures from The Teaching Company, you know that instructors can be hit or miss. Their material may be good but their presentation is poor or vice versa. Rarely do the two meet except in this case. Prof. Garland looks at the micro and macro lens in examining the ordinary social climate of the ancient world. It is a fascinating and informative look to better examine our current social climate. One such observation was when Garland talks about the large temples and public buildings of the Greeks and Romans noting that people took considerable pride in their buildings. Their first concern was that the building was grand and moved them beyond their own space. We see these ostentatious temples and buildings and immediately our awe moves to think what a waste as we criticize the hypocrisy of the system. They could have helped others or improved their own homes, which is another way of forcing our Western mindset upon them. We are so focused on condemning the system because it helps us not look at our own excessive individualistic hypocrisy.

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The Other Side of History - Robert Garland

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