Word: pythagorean
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Schneider’s interesting musical experimentation, however, sometimes suggests otherwise. “C.P.U.” was written on a non-Pythagorean scale, a musical innovation of Schneider’s based on natural logarithms that creates an interesting, if somewhat jarring, tonality. His innovation demonstrates a level of inspiration and genuine interest that exceeds the repetitive simplicity of much of the album. Other isolated moments of inspiration, such as the glam-rock riff that opens “Dignified Dignitary,” prove that Apples in Stereo are capable of occasional novelty...
They're all right. The orthodox cheeseburger, with its pillowy, enriched white bun, Pythagorean square of tangerine-colored American cheese and blissfully unadulterated (and unspiced) beef, is an invention that cannot really be improved upon. Like sashimi or peaches and cream, it's a gastronomic end point. But this is America. We're about competition and reinvention - not just at the Burger Bash, but also in the omnipotent market, where fortunes rise and fall over the narrowest bits of brand differentiation. (Take away Ronald and the King, and only an expert can tell the basic McDonald's and Burger King...
...back to the sixth century B.C., Livio uses Pythagoras, Plato, and Archimedes to demonstrate that there is an intimate relationship between the most basic arithmetic and much more complicated and inaccessible abstract logic. Revelations abound, from the logical basis for counting, to the foundation of prime numbers, and the Pythagorean Theorem. But there are an equal number of instances where Livio’s explanations fall short, such as when he discusses knots or how gravity operates in the solar system. In these cases, Livio loses himself in the history of the discoveries and overwhelms the reader with superfluous information...
...natural logarithms, Schneider replaced the standard twelve-tone octave with a new set of frequencies. According to Schneider, “music theory in this scale has not yet been worked out.” The results are two 30-40 second songs enticingly called “Non-Pythagorean Theorem Compositions.” As far as I can tell, these tracks (as well as the other eight sub-minute songs on the album) sound basically like a five year old stepping on a Casio keyboard. The band’s website claims that these sounds were made using...
Much of the material is dauntingly complex, but Gaines works hard to keep his prose accessible and entertaining--sometimes too hard, as when he writes of Prussia's ruling family, "The Hohenzollerns were a funny bunch," or when, in the midst of explaining Pythagorean numbers and the theory of affections in music, he assures the reader defensively, "This will be over soon." Even the most abstract passages, though, are warmed by his obvious reverence for Bach, whose music he has been playing on the piano since he was a child...