Folding Space-Time … WIth Sound

Vi Hart channels her inner Möbius … and her inner J.S. Bach … and her inner Time Lord … to turn a wooden bowl and a music box player into an interpreter of space-time reflections using music as dimensions.

This sonic mind-expander should be washed down with a look at the master of palindromic, reflected space-time compositions: J.S. Bach and his gloriously twisty-turny Crab Canon (srsly it’ll blow ya mind)

The Genius of J.S. Bach’s “Crab Canon” Visualized on a Möbius Strip

Holy harpsichord.

We know J.S. Bach was a genius composer. Certainly among the top two or three that have ever lived by most measures. Even knowing that, I was not prepared for the awesomeness you are about to see.

This is the first canon from Bach’s Musical Offering, known as the “crab canon”. The first level of awesome is when you find out that it was designed to be played backwards and forwards. But lots of people have done that … big deal, right?

Then you find out that it was written to be played backwards and forwards at the same time. That’s pretty amazing, but again, since it’s not that long I wouldn’t classify it as an Earth-shattering epiphany.

BUT THEN … graphic artist Jos Leys (who made the video), show how this Bach piece is basically the musical version of a Möbius strip.

Mind. Blown.

(Read more at Open Culture)

Source: openculture.com

Mandala - A Planetary Musical Palindrome by Daniel Starr-Tambor

This is trippy. And simply an amazing feat of creativity. Daniel Starr-Tambor composed this abstract musical composition by assigning each planet(oid) a particular note along the natural harmonic series, ranging from Mercury’s B to Pluto’s C# two octaves up. The notes are played in a pattern corresponding to orbital periods of each planet.

I’ll let his description tell you the rest:

With more than 62 vigintillion individual notes, “Mandala” is the longest palindrome in existence. Composed using the first nine partials of the Natural Harmonic Series repeating at the accelerated tempos of our solar system, Mandala would continue without repetition for over 532.25 septendecillion years. In homage to “Art of the Fugue” by J.S. Bach, “Mandala” has been crafted to include the “musical signature” of it’s author: the stereo imaging is arranged to reflect the exact position of the solar system at the moment of his birth, from the perspective of the Sun as it faces the constellation Libra, so that each note chronicles his birthday on every planet.

Did I mention that this was amazing? Well done, sir. If you aren’t as blown away by this as me, we can’t be friends.

(by starrtambor)

Source: youtube.com