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Science Quickly

Computers Confirm Beethoven's Influence

Science Quickly

Scientific American

Science

4.2639 Ratings

🗓️ 3 March 2020

⏱️ 4 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

By breaking 900 classical piano compositions into musical chunks, researchers could track Ludwig van Beethoven’s influence on the composers who followed him. Christopher Intagliata reports.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:05.8

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0:11.0

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0:19.6

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0:28.4

When it comes to a guide for your gut, count on Yacolt.

0:33.7

This is Scientific American's 60-second science. I'm Christopher in Taliatta.

0:39.0

Beethoven is a giant of classical music, and the most influential, too, at least when it comes to piano compositions.

0:46.3

That's according to a study in the journal EPJ data science.

0:49.6

If you're wondering how data analysis could determine something as intangible as cultural influence,

0:55.1

it's worth remembering this.

0:56.8

The great thing about music is that it is the most mathematical of the art forms we actually

1:01.6

can deal with because a lot of it is symbolic.

1:04.5

It's temporal.

1:05.4

So we have symbols.

1:07.3

The music is by using symbols that are connected in time.

1:10.0

Zhu Yong Park is a theoretical physicist by training, an associate professor of culture technology,

1:14.6

at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.

1:18.6

Park and his colleagues collected 900 piano compositions by 19 composers,

1:23.6

spanning the Baroque, classical, and romantic periods from 1700 to 1910.

1:57.0

Then they used that mathematical quality to their advantage by dividing each composition into what they called code words, a group of simultaneously played notes, in other words, a chord. They then compared each chord to the chord or note that came after it,

2:02.4

which allowed them to determine how creative composers were at coming up with novel transitions.

2:08.7

The composer who won top marks for novelty, Ruk Monenov.

...

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