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<TITLE>Re: [Smt-talk] Symmetry and Musical Aesthetics</TITLE>
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<FONT FACE="Calibri, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:11pt'>Weyl’s book, among others, is cited in Robert Morgan’s “Symmetrical Form and Common-Practice Tonality” (<I>MTS </I>20/1), which is one of the first items that popped to my mind when reading Laurel Parsons’s post (particularly regarding #2).<BR>
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-Scott<BR>
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Scott Murphy<BR>
Associate Professor of Music Theory<BR>
University of Kansas School of Music<BR>
<a href="smurphy@ku.edu">smurphy@ku.edu</a><BR>
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on 12/10/10 8:15 AM, Soderberg, Stephen at <a href="ssod@loc.gov">ssod@loc.gov</a> wrote:<BR>
</SPAN></FONT><BLOCKQUOTE><FONT FACE="Calibri, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:11pt'>...<FONT COLOR="#1F497D"> I've never read a better "cross-disciplinary" discussion than Hermann Weyl's beautiful little book, <I>Symmetry</I> (<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Symmetry-Hermann-Weyl/dp/0691023743">http://www.amazon.com/Symmetry-Hermann-Weyl/dp/0691023743</a> -- not much in it about music per se though).<BR>
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Steve Soderberg<BR>
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Stephen Soderberg<BR>
Senior Specialist<BR>
for Contemporary Music<BR>
Music Division<BR>
Library of Congress<BR>
Washington, DC<BR>
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</SPAN></FONT><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT FACE="Tahoma, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:10pt'><B>From:</B> <a href="smt-talk-bounces@lists.societymusictheory.org">smt-talk-bounces@lists.societymusictheory.org</a> [<a href="mailto:smt-talk-bounces@lists.societymusictheory.org">mailto:smt-talk-bounces@lists.societymusictheory.org</a>] <B>On Behalf Of </B>Laurel Parsons<BR>
<B>Sent:</B> Thursday, December 09, 2010 1:55 PM<BR>
<B>To:</B> <a href="smt-talk@societymusictheory.org">smt-talk@societymusictheory.org</a><BR>
<B>Subject:</B> [Smt-talk] Symmetry and Musical Aesthetics<BR>
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Dear colleagues,<BR>
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</SPAN></FONT><FONT FACE="Times New Roman"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12pt'>An upper-level undergraduate student at our liberal arts and sciences university is embarking on a long-term interdisciplinary study of the relationship between symmetry and beauty. She is an accomplished violinist, but is not a music major and has no post-tonal theory background as yet; however, she is both well-versed and interested in calculus, statistics, and other mathematical forms so could pick it up fairly easily. While there are hundreds of scholarly articles on various kinds of compositional symmetry in the music of Western composers to which I could refer her, I'm wondering if anyone can recommend:<BR>
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</SPAN></FONT><FONT FACE="Times New Roman"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12pt'>1) a good historical overview of how symmetry has been used in Western music, and/or<BR>
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</SPAN></FONT><FONT FACE="Times New Roman"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12pt'>2) scholarly writing that addresses the <I>aesthetics</I> of musical symmetry rather than (")simply(") the compositional mechanics of its usage in the works of specific composers. <BR>
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</SPAN></FONT><FONT FACE="Times New Roman"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12pt'>Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.<BR>
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</SPAN></FONT><FONT FACE="Times New Roman"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12pt'>Best wishes,<BR>
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</SPAN></FONT><FONT FACE="Times New Roman"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12pt'>Laurel Parsons<BR>
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