Choir sings math-inspired music

Math and music are rarely thought to have much in common, but a local choir will hold a program this weekend exploring the links between the two.\nThe Voces Novae choir will perform the program, "Music and Mathematics" 7 p.m., Sunday at the First United Church at 2420 E. Third St.\n"Math is everywhere," said Susan Swaney, artistic and music director of the Voces Novae. "Certainly it is the fundament of music."\nSwaney said mathematics is underneath all of the music we hear, make and appreciate and the group just wants to hold that up and examine the relationship. \nSwaney said much of the program will be showing mathematical principles are at the basis of virtually all music.\n"I'm also hoping to use music as a metaphor into some of the more complicated mathematical ideas," she said.\nBut, Swaney said, the show will be accessible to those who are not mathematically inclined.\n"It's going to be a fun exploration -- you don't have to be a math brain," Swaney said. "Our programs are always multi-art events, they're not just a choral concert, but we often have instrumental music, some talking, poetry and visual things."\nThe choral portion of the program will consist of four selections -- Bach's "Cantata 192," Dufay's "Nuper Rosarum Flores," Ockeghem's "Missa Prolationem" and Webern's "Entflieht Auf Leichten Kähnen." \nDuring the performance, the mathematical nature of the pieces will be discussed, she said. \nSwaney said people have wildly varying opinions about how much math there is in Bach's compositions.\nSwaney said she was looking for a Bach piece that used the Golden Mean, or "Divine Proportion," the ratio 1.618034:1, which is seen as ideal. Swaney said the Golden Mean can be seen between measures in the first and second movements where the ratio is 5:3. As a decimal, the ratio is close to the desired 1.6. A similar ratio, 13:8, exists between measures in the second and third movement. \nWhile ratios can only approximate the Golden Mean, the higher the number, the closer the approximation gets to the ratio, so the 13:8 ratio could have been perceived as more "divine" than the 5:3 ratio, she said. \nAccording to Swaney, the interesting thing about this example is Bach created the movements sequentially. He generated the second movement based on the length of the first and the third movement based on the length of the second. \nSwaney said, according to scholars, the proportions of Dufay's composition reflect the proportions of Brunelleschi's dome in Florence or the Temple of Solomon as described in the Bible. \n"It is an interesting way of relating a structure that unfolds in time to an architectural form," Swaney said.\nThe Ockeghem piece demonstrates how the composer would take a melody and the sopranos, altos, tenors and bass would sing the same melody in different rhythms, she said.\n"It's a mathematically derived musical concept, and the music that comes out of it is just so gloriously beautiful," Swaney said. "In the concert we will demonstrate how the different parts line up."\nSwaney said Webern is systematically exploring all the intervals between the 12 musical tones.\n"It's a very short piece, but it's very schmaltzy, for lack of a better word. It's very romantic," she said.\nVoces Novae uses the arts to explore things people take for granted in everyday life, and to try and get people to take time to pay attention to what is around them, Swaney said. \n "What makes the group so unusual is that more than half of the members have degrees in music, but are not professional musicians," said Alexandra Morphet, Voces Novae member.\nAccording to the Voces Novae Web site, the choir counts among its members a doctor, a biologist, an equestrian, two computer technologists, a costume designer, a financial administrator, a folklorist and more.\nAdmission for the performance is $10 general admission and $5 for senior citizens and students. \n-- Contact staff writer Matt McNabb at mmcnabb@indiana.edu.