music as patterns i

This is one of two series I want to start on this blog (look for the other "mystery" series to appear shortly!), viz. the investigation of music as patterns.

Let me just discursively throw out some ways in which patterns are a part of music:

VIBRATIONAL (from a simple vibrating sine wave to complex multi-timbrel occurrences, the vibrating ear drum, and so on)
RHYTHMIC (organization of sound even irrespective of pitch)
FORMAL (melodic shapes, harmonic structures, harmonic progressions, divisions of a piece of music into common forms -- sonata, song, aba -- scale structures, fingering patterns on particular instruments)

Also patterns may be grouped into those that are PERCEPTIBLE and those that are more CONCEPTUAL. A melodic phrase is an example of the former whereas the graphic representation of a square wave producing the pitch B4 is an example of the latter. Of course a melodic phrase notated is more conceptual but still perceptible, so perhaps another category of VISUAL needs to be added.

At any rate future posts in this series will start to examine some of these issues and others having to deal with emotion, entrainment and the like.