Music, nature and structural form

P. S. Bulson
Lymington, Hampshire, UK

Abstract
The simple harmonic relationships of western music are known to have links
with classical architecture, and much has been written over the centuries about
the concept of musical proportion in geometrical composition. However, it is
possible to extend the link between music and structural form by noting that the
well-tempered chromatic scale can be represented in terms of the frequencies of
successive notes by a doubling logarithmic spiral.
Musical harmonies, sequences and compositions can be given a geometric
form and represented by a type of abstract art. These geometric figures resemble
man-made structures, and the spirals on which they are based are similar to the
shell structures of nature.

1 The structure of music

It is well known that attractive, easy on the ear harmonies in conventional
western music are linked to simple ratios between the frequency of vibration of
notes played or sung simultaneously. Pythagoras showed with vibrating strings
that an octave was formed by frequencies in the ratio 2:1; that the dominant or
fifth note sounded with the base note of a scale produced a simple harmony with
a frequency ratio 3:2; that a fourth and base combination was in the frequency
ratio 4:3; and so on. Architects soon realised that the harmonic relationships in
music were not unlike the accepted good proportions in the elevations of public
buildings, cathedrals, palaces and churches. Much has been written about this
over the years and there are many interesting books on the subject in the
architectural sections of libraries.
The author proposes to move forward from this established position by
looking more closely at the chromatic scale of western music and its links with
natural and man-made structures. There are twelve intervals within one octave,
but these are not formed by subtracting the frequency of the base note from its

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octave and dividing by twelve. In the most academically exact method of tuning
a music instrument the intervals are a true geometric progression, in which the
frequency of each successive note on the chromatic scale is 21/12 times the
frequency of the preceding note, where 21/12 is about 1.06. Thus, if the frequency
of the base note of a scale were 256 vibrations per second, the successive notes
would have frequencies of 256 x 21/12, 256 x 22/12, 256 x 23/12 and so on. After
twelve intervals the frequency of the octave would be 256 x 212/12 = 512
vibrations per second. Bach was very keen on the purity of this scale, which is
known as the well-tempered scale, and he wrote a number of compositions for
his well-tempered clavier, which he deliberately tuned in this geometric
progression. Modern methods of piano tuning produce a succession of
frequencies that are similar, but not quite the same as the well-tempered scale.
The fact that they do not match exactly produces ‘bright’ and ‘melancholy’ keys,
but that is another subject.
The author can find no evidence of the representation of the well-tempered
scale by a logarithmic spiral, but this is what is produced when the twelve
intervals of the chromatic scale are represented as radial lines with the angular
pitch of 30°, so that the octave note coincides angularly with the base note. The
length of each radial line represents the frequency of the note, the lengths
increasing by a constant factor of 21/12 to form the logarithmic spiral shown in
Fig. 1. The spiral can be extended outwards and inwards to correspond to higher
and lower octaves.

30o

Figure 1(a): One octave of the chromatic scale plotted with frequency ratios
forming a doubling logarithmic spiral.

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© 2004 WIT Press, www.witpress.com, ISBN 1-85312-721-3
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Figure 1(b): The doubling spirals of four octaves.

Eighty-eight separate lines, all increasing in the ratio 21/12, form the 88 notes
on a normal piano keyboard, and since the ratio of successive frequencies at any
radial line is 2:1, music is a doubling logarithmic spiral, doubling in radial
amplitude with every revolution.
This explains the attractiveness of music to the human senses. It is the
interaction of a geometric and arithmetic progression. Before we explore this in
more detail we should review what is known about the properties of spirals.

2 Spirals
There was a great interest in spirals in the nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries, when mathematicians, philosophers and scientists became fascinated
by the properties of these intriguing figures. There was a feeling that spirals
were a fundamental aspect of life and the universe, and of the hereafter. Links
were formed between the mathematics of spirals and the method of growth of
shell, tusk, horn and claw. Each successive increment of growth is similar, and
similarly magnified, and similarly situated to its predecessor. Spirals have links
with the formation of leaves, petals and seed-heads in plants. The mathematical
properties were thought to be so fundamental to life and death that James
Bernoulli, following Archimedes, had the logarithmic spiral inscribed on his
tomb.
Readers wishing to explore spirals in detail are recommended to study three
books. The first two are by Sir Theodore Cook: Spirals in nature and art (1903)
and the Curves of Life (1914). The third comprises the famous two volumes by
d’Arcy Thompson entitled On Growth and Form (1917). We will limit ourselves
for the moment to the shells of molluscs, in which growth is composed of parts
successively and permanently laid down. The material is added to the extremity

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© 2004 WIT Press, www.witpress.com, ISBN 1-85312-721-3
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of the shell, as shown in Fig. 2, where successive periods of growth of a Nautilus

shell are shown to be separated by the similar contours of the septa. The shape
of shells is governed in side elevation by the ratio of the breadth of successive
whorls 360° apart, and in the Nautilus pompilius this ratio is almost exactly
three, as indicated in the Figure. However, the prehistoric ammonite shells,
particularly Ammonites tornatus, illustrated in Fig. 3, doubled their radial
dimensions in one revolution.

Figure 2: The trebling spiral of the Nautilus shell.

Figure 3: The doubling spirals of Ammonite fossils.

The septa or suture lines, where the partitions of the soft body of the animal
joined the shell, are clearly seen. Thus, geometrically, the natural spiral of music
is exactly reproduced in nature by the ammonites. However, the natural intervals
are more frequent in the shells, about 24 periods of growth forming one
revolution, as opposed to 12 in music. The shells, therefore, correspond to a
chromatic scale consisting of 24 quarter-tones rather than 12 half-tones.

Design and Nature II, M. W. Collins & C. A. Brebbia (Editors)

© 2004 WIT Press, www.witpress.com, ISBN 1-85312-721-3
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Figure 4: Arpeggios on the Figure 5: The whole tone scale of

diminished chords. Debussy.

Figure 6: Arpeggio based on the Figure 7: Beethoven’s Moonlight

Dominant Seventh. Sonata.

3 The geometry of music

Returning to the musical spiral, it is possible to represent chords and arpeggios
by joining the ends of the radial lines representing the frequencies of the notes
that form these musical figures. The patterns formed by this process make
geometric figures based on the properties of spirals. They make a form of
abstract art, examples of which are reproduced from the works of the author in
Figs 4, 5 and 6. These examples include the geometrical representation of
augmented, diminished, major and minor chords. The construction lines are all
drawn on a spiral base, where the radial dimensions of the spiral are denoted by
the sinusoidal form of vibrating strings.

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It is also possible to represent musical composition in the same way, by

connecting the extremities of the radial lines in the order of the notes of the
melody. This produces abstract patterns of lines of varying length and position
and creates a geometric ‘signature’ of the melodic theme. Examples are shown
in Figs 7 and 8 where the geometric interpretation of Beethoven’s ‘Moonlight
Sonata’ and Tschaikowsky’s ‘Andante Cantabile’ are recorded. These abstracts
begin to remind us of modern framed structures where struts and ties are freed
from the rigid geometric boundaries of circle, rectangle and triangle. If it is
possible to convert musical composition into structural forms, is it also possible
to convert the geometry of structures into musical composition? Will beautiful,
economically designed structures convert to beautiful arpeggios or lyrical
melodies? Will poorly designed structures produce discords or ugly, ill-
conditioned melody lines?

Figure 8: Tschaikowsky’s Andante Cantabile.

Figure 9: Simple symmetric framework.

Design and Nature II, M. W. Collins & C. A. Brebbia (Editors)

© 2004 WIT Press, www.witpress.com, ISBN 1-85312-721-3
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4 The music of structures

One of the simplest framed structures has the symmetric triangular geometry
shown in Fig. 9. It is relatively cheap to construct and was widely used in
domestic buildings in earlier times. Suppose the span has a dimension of 12
units, so that the truss consists of 3 lengths of 6 units, radiating from the centre
of the lower chord, and two lengths of 6 x 21/2 units. If the geometry is compared
with music we find it rather dull. The repeating of the same base note three
times followed by the tritone has a rather flat sound. However, if a small change
is made to the geometry an interesting musical world emerges, as shown in
Fig. 10. Here the lower chord is split at 0 into units of 5 and 7, and the vertical
from 0 is left at 6 units. These proportions are very similar to the frequency
ratios of the 3rd and 6th notes of the chromatic scale, which we saw earlier were
21/4 and 21/2. Using 5 as the base note, the music divisions would be 5.21/4 and
5.21/2 respectively, i.e. 5.95 and 7.05. So the 5, 6, 7 framework can be
represented musically by the diminished chord, which in the key of C would be
C, Eb, F#. This attractive harmony would be reinforced by the addition of the
sixth, in this case the note A. Its length, in terms of our simple frame, would be
8.4 units, which is very close to the diagonal measurement of the first truss (8.46
units), and also happens to be the average of the two diagonals in Fig. 10. So, by
averaging the diagonals we can ‘play’ the framework as the diminished chord C,
Eb, F#, A. What an interesting prospect if the sight of a roof truss brought
pleasant music to our ears.

Figure 10: Framework based on diminished chord.

Modern suspension bridges, such as the Severn Bridge, are thought of as

simple, elegant structures, and at first sight they seem to lend themselves to a
musical interpretation, particularly as the regularly spaced hangers give the
arithmetic progression of equal intervals, whereas the cables are clearly
increasing in their height above the deck at an increasing rate. Under the load of
the stiffening girder and decking, and with regularly spaced hangers, the cables
change from their unloaded exponential form to something approaching a
parabolic curve. In the former the rate of increase of hanger length is

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© 2004 WIT Press, www.witpress.com, ISBN 1-85312-721-3
182 Design and Nature II

proportional to the length of the hanger; in the latter the rate of increase in
hanger length is proportional to the horizontal distance of the hanger from the
origin. So neither of these curves satisfies the constant ratio, or the ‘compound
interest’ form of music. However, if the height of the top of the towers above
the centre of the stiffening girder is taken to include a range of several octaves,
we can ‘play’ the cable as an extended arpeggio. This is illustrated in Fig. 11,
which shows how a single parabolic curve lies very close to a sequence of three
octaves, when every third note is played. Thus the parabolic curve of a
suspension bridge cable lies very close to the geometric series formed by an
arpeggio of 12 notes based on the diminished chord. This is also illustrated in
Fig. 11, where the diminished chords in the key of C are shown.

Figure 11: ‘Playing’ the cable as an extended arpeggio.

It is of interest to note that the diminished arpeggio of the Severn Bridge

combines melodically with the successive notes of the Sydney Opera House
composition, so we have a single musical link between two structures of very
different form and shape. How far did designers suspect that their architectural
inspiration was being conditioned by the spiral of music in this way when they
thought they were free to do what they liked!

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© 2004 WIT Press, www.witpress.com, ISBN 1-85312-721-3
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5 Discussion
When spirals were investigated by scientists like Cook and d’Arcy Thompson in
the early years of the twentieth century there was much talk about the
logarithmic spiral as the fundamental conception of the mathematical expression
of Nature. The ‘curves of life’ were thought to be linked to the Fibonacci series
and the approach of the ratio of successive pairs of numbers in the series to the
Golden Number or Ratio of Pheidas of 1.618034. The composition and spacing
of the great classic paintings were thought to combine art and science via this
proportion ½(51/2 - 1), which was designated ǿ. We noted earlier that famous
and brilliant men have asked for the logarithmic spiral to be engraved on their
headstones.
We have been concerned in this study with ‘doubling spirals’ in which the
ratio of successive radii at equal angular pitch remains constant, and in one
complete revolution the radii double in length. The spiral shape does not bear an
immediate relationship to the curves of life based on the ratio ǿ, but does seem to
forge a fundamental link between music and some structures of nature and man.
There is no indication, however, that this is more than a fortuitous coincidence,
and it would be unwise to read more into this work than that. The comparisons
are surprising and interesting but are not likely to be part of some hidden natural
law that has yet to be discovered.

Design and Nature II, M. W. Collins & C. A. Brebbia (Editors)

© 2004 WIT Press, www.witpress.com, ISBN 1-85312-721-3