In 1974’s “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance,” Robert Pirsig proposed a problematic divide in the history of western thought as ancient as Aristotle. Pirsig said that western philosophy separates the rational and the romantic. Creativity is divorced from science.
Pirsig posited that eastern traditions recognizing the duality in all things were a better representation of reality: engineering feats require creative leaps and there is as much structure in art as in calculus.
A professor at Dalhousie University is resolving the tension between aesthetics and mechanics with his approach to song writing.
Jason Brown is the chair of the mathematics and statistics department at Dalhousie University. He’s been composing music for 50 years. He says that both disciplines depend on pattern recognition.
“People who compose music recognize that one of the things they can play around with is expectations,” Brown said. “The ability set up patterns is mathematical.”
For his newest song, “One More Part of Me,” Brown …