杏吧原创

Ernst Chladni鈥檚 figures capture the patterns created by sound waves (Image: King鈥檚 College London/Science Photo Library)

Music was key to Western teaching, from Plato up to the 18th century. In Music and the Making of Modern Science, Peter Pesic claims it shaped today鈥檚 science

IGOR STRAVINSKY commented that music is certainly related 鈥渢o something like mathematical thinking and relationship鈥�. For scientists, too, music has been a fruitful subject of study as well as a rich source of metaphor. When theoretical physicist Frank Wilczek and journalist Betsy Devine called their book on modern physics Longing for the Harmonies, everyone knew what they meant.

Peter Pesic, in his provocative new book, argues that music has influenced the development of physical science, from the earliest beginnings of the scientific revolution right up to string theory.

The musician and physicist passes swiftly over the 鈥渕usic of the spheres鈥� 鈥� the ancient notion that patterns in the motion of celestial bodies are a form of music. But Pesic is at pains to show how from Plato鈥檚 time to the 18th century, music, alongside astronomy, arithmetic and geometry, was part of the West鈥檚 quadrivium, a common educational curriculum.

Pesic demonstrates that by the late 16th and early 17th centuries, music was prominent in the work of astronomer Johannes Kepler. Kepler incorporated musical ideas into the foundations of astronomy and, says Pesic, even rejected algebraic results that contradicted musical experience. Later, philosopher Ren茅 Descartes cast music in a new light by reconsidering its relationship to mathematics and sound 鈥� music was no longer a divine force but something that could be understood scientifically.

Pesic has a tougher sell in the case of Newton, who allegedly walked out of the only opera he ever attended. Yet Newton鈥檚 early notebooks show he studied music and, a decade later, applied the musical scale to defining the colours of the spectrum.

Pesic鈥檚 account of 18th-century mathematician and physicist Leonhard Euler is also telling. Euler spent most of his free time on music, and he went on to devise a 鈥渄egree of agreeableness鈥� that indexed musical intervals and chords, work that closely preceded his interest in number theory.

Building on Euler鈥檚 work, and that of the experimental physicist Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, Ernst Chladni broke new ground when he effectively made sound visible. Adapting Lichtenberg鈥檚 experiments with charged metal plates and iron filings, he applied violin bows to differently shaped plates with sand on them to check the vibrations and patterns they created. These 鈥淐hladni鈥檚 figures鈥� make visible the spatial patterns made by sound waves (see picture).

But by the 20th century, music looked less important to the work of the most creative theoretical physicists. Take Max Planck, the father of quantum theory. He was an accomplished pianist and wrote about music, but Pesic seems to be clutching at straws when he notes that Planck preferred to set out his quantum theory in terms of 鈥渞esonators鈥�, rather than use the marginally less musical term, 鈥渙scillators鈥�.

Another founder of quantum theory, Erwin Schr枚dinger, was at best indifferent to music. So, too, was John von Neumann, one of the 20th century鈥檚 greatest mathematicians. Though not featured in Pesic鈥檚 book, one of von Neumann鈥檚 former associates told me that he had little interest in music 鈥渁part from playing gramophone records of marching bands, to鈥� Einstein鈥檚 irritation鈥�.

鈥淛ohn von Neumann played gramophone records of marching bands, to Einstein鈥檚 irritation鈥�

Einstein himself was a violinist and could scarcely imagine a life without music, though he believed it had nothing to do with his work. Pesic does not tell us, but in 1928, Einstein told psychologist Paul Plaut: 鈥淢usic does not influence research work, but鈥� they complement each other with the satisfaction they offer.鈥�

Many modern physicists would probably agree, but Pesic argues that 鈥渢he musical groundwork had鈥� become part of the mathematical and theoretical structures鈥� that they tend to take for granted. Whatever the truth, this handsome book will appeal to all who yearn for the universe鈥檚 harmonies 鈥� real, abstract or both.

This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淭he power of music鈥�