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Music and math: The genius of Beethoven - Natalya St. Clair

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TEDEd Animation

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How is it that Beethoven, who is celebrated as one of the most significant composers of all time, wrote many of his most beloved songs while going deaf? The answer lies in the math behind his music. Natalya St. Clair employs the "Moonlight Sonata" to illustrate the way Beethoven was able to convey emotion and creativity using the certainty of mathematics.

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What did James Sylvester mean when he wrote, “May not music be described as the mathematics of the sense, mathematics as music of the reason? The musician feels mathematics, the mathematician thinks music: music the dream, mathematics the working life.”?

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Meet The Creators

  • Educator Natalya St. Clair
  • Animator Qa'ed Mai
  • Script Editor Alex Gendler
  • Narrator Addison Anderson