Math in Music
Duo Mathemusik - Claudio Olivera and Danielle Wood
Mathemusik visits Alcorn Middle School
The overarching goal for this presentation was to provide students with tools to creatively think about mathematics.
Math and music seem to be two separate entities, but in reality, they are not. The two subjects overlap in set or twelve-tone theory. Claudio and I had the opportunity to visit Alcorn Middle School and teach three different classes of six and seventh graders. In our quest to enlighten the students about math and music, we chose to focus on the twelve-tone row.
The Classroom
We were not expecting the plain fascination and willingness to participate in the exercises.
We worked with a row from Poulenc's
In order to provide a visual aid for each of these concepts, we use boxes labeled 0-11 and asked the students to construct the row. For transformations and inversions, we had placed notecards on the ground to represent the twelve-tone polygon.
We focused on the first three numbers and would ask the volunteers to stand on the notecard that corresponded with their box number. Then, they shifted to their new number, and Claudio or I handed them their new box. After that, they lined up linearly to show their new row, and we compared the old row with the new row.
The Takeaway
Through these exercises, we hoped to educate the students about the connections between math and music and how these commonalities can be applied to our daily lives.
This project has shaped my semester in ways I could not have imagined, but I am extremely grateful for the opportunities I have had. I hope to continue pursuing my passion for teaching math and music, and further cultivate the enthusiasm to learn.