Introduction 7
hard evidence, Drake ’ s speculation remains only that. Galileo ’ s beautiful pages on music
in his Dialogues on Two New Sciences show ways he applied his new science to music,
rather than vice versa.^16
Instead, I will present cases in which more substantive evidence shows the effect of
music on science. Drake daringly claimed that music was “ the father of modern physical
science and mathematics was its mother ” ; I will make a more nuanced argument that music
influenced the unfolding of science at many points and in different ways.^17 My studies
point to diverse modes of interaction, both in kind and degree. Nor is musical influence
merely “ positive ” in the sense of advancing what (from our perspective) became the
received opinion, whose emergence I will view with some reservation. In particular, New-
ton ’ s engagement with music arguably had a ambiguous effect on him, at least from the
point of view of those who judge critically his role in the controversy between particle
and wave theories of light.
Most of all, the case studies in this book bring forward the peculiar power of music, its
autonomous force as a stream of experience and sensitivity, independent of language,
capable of stimulating insights different than those mediated by visible representations
and their attendant theoretical constructs. Compared to the realms of verbal and visible
experience, we are only at the beginning of assessing and understanding the role in human
experience played by music and sound. Examining the intimate relations between music
and science may help us hear (not just see) them both more acutely.Throughout the book, where I refer to various “ ♪ sound examples, ” please see http://mitpress
.mit.edu/musicandmodernscience (please note that the sound examples should be viewed in
Chrome or Safari Web browsers). See that link as well for further information on purchasing
enhanced digital editions that will be available in a variety of formats. The text and examples
are most easily and seamlessly available on the iBook version, available for iPad and Mac,
in which you need merely touch a sound example to hear and see it.