Tuesday, July 1, 2014

K1 P1

What does knitting reveal about music?

Just as composition has a great deal to do with mathematical proportions and with variations within and upon patterns, so does knitting.  At the moment I am working on a String Improvisation for which I decided to use a multiple of 4 stitches as the basic design unit.

After a very short time I realized why Beethoven prefers the plus one, minus one principle:  3 + 5 is so much more interesting!  Even numbers quickly cloy.  (Sounds like the text to one of those Elizabethan lute songs, or at least a Gilbert & Sullivan parody of same.)

So why do we still teach children rhythm in even numbers?  When you figure that one out please let me know.