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Most people are comfortable with the idea that music -- from classical to jazz to rock to pop and everything in between -- is a form of art. And yet the question persists -- what tools can accentuate the aesthetics, the emotion or the connection between the lyrics and the music?

A Dalhousie University mathematician says the answer may be found in the elegance of math.

Dr. Jason Brown, a professor and chair of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, set out to compose a pop song inspired by and based on mathematics. He and co-writer Lawrence Lesser of the University of Texas,were intent on creating a piece of music that could stand alone as a pop song and be appreciated without people being conscious of any of the underlying mathematics that went into the process.

The result is “One More Part of Me,” a folk-rock song about losing one's identity in a relationship, runs 4:53 and is based on mathematical patterns -- both musically and lyrically. The pair started by discussing what mathematical concepts might form a basis for the lyrical content of the song. They settled on fractals, which are mathematical shapes that are infinitely complex and can repeat forever. They also used the Cantor set, which is a set of points on a line segment that repeatedly removes the middle third of each section ad infinitum.

Dr. Brown, a Beatles devotee and songwriter in his own right, will present the song and a paper on how it was composed at the international Bridges conference in Virginia, USA next month. He is available to discuss the music and how some of the most successful music producers and singers incorporate math in their creative process.

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Media contact:

Alison Auld
Senior Research Reporter
Communications, Marketing and Creative Services
Dalhousie University
Cell: 1-902-220-0491
Email: alison.auld@dal.ca