Numbers

This is going to be a very interesting semester. I'm not, as I had planned, taking counterpoint this semester (shucks!) due to my own incompetence in reading a schedule book. Rather, I'm taking an advanced post-tonal analysis class. Yeah. Post-tonal. Really, I'm a pretty tonal girl, when it comes right down to it. We jumped in the first day with both feet -- set theory! Woo-hoo! Actually, the rest of the class jumped in the first day; I was still sorting out my schedule, so I gave them a head start. Really good planning, especially since I DON'T KNOW BEANS ABOUT SET THEORY!!!

Anyway. I've always preferred to let my math be math and my music be music, and never the twain shall meet. So my approach to set theory, in which "music" is created by permuting a series of numbers, is strictly mathematical. I enjoy permuting series of numbers; it's the idea that they then make "music" that holds me back. So I'm simply ignoring the aural aspect of the whole thing and becoming a mathematical analyst. And that's really fun! Playing with numbers is so much like playing Bach; there's so much going on, so many little tangles to deal with, that my normally chaotic musician's brain gets all sorted out somehow. This is the part of my brain that loves physics and patterns and logic puzzles. This is the part of me that took the Mensa test just for fun. This part of me is really glad to have the chance to come out and play.

Thanks, B., for twisting my arm to take this class! I still don't like Webern, but the sets are great. And yes, I'll help you with your homework.