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Before going into the realms of harmonics, which have been referred to a few times in the various quotes, I want to interject with another perspective, related to the above subject, which will require a rather large quote from the book, Turbulent Mirror, by John Briggs and David Peatt. They are talking about research on Solitons and Equipartition. To clarify, a Soliton is an unexpected, solitary (hence Soliton) wave: – whereas a normal wave tends to break up over time and lose energy, a Soliton is a wave that becomes reinforced and bound by other waves joining together and can pass through other waves without losing its integrity. As Peatt and Briggs put it:

A soliton is born on the edge. If too much energy is involved in the initial interaction, the wave breaks up into turbulence. If too little energy, the wave dissipates…nonlinear interactions at critical values don’t produce chaos, they produce spontaneous self-organizing forms. (B&P, p.120)

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I wish to speak to sound as it relates to vibration. I wish to understand the symmetry and beauty of the universe. The way it continues to elaborate upon itself so appropriately, so eloquently, is worth observing, worth relating to. From a musical perspective, I am interested in how music can also be experienced as useful, as alchemical, as connected to the universal laws of creation. What does its inherent make-up speak to in us and our relationship to it? In order to do that, I feel drawn to examine, firstly, the relationship between myself and sound, through an exploration of vibration.

In Science, two gentlemen; “John Schwarz of the California Institute of Technology and Michael Green of Queen Mary College in London” (Superstrings, p.4) created a theory known as a Theory of Everything (TOE). Otherwise known as “Superstring Theory”. Superstring theory suggests that; the ultimate building blocks of nature consist of tiny vibrating strings. If correct, this means that the protons and neutrons in all matter, everything from our bodies to the farthest star, are ultimately made up of accordingly to the superstring theory, our world only appears to be made of point particles, because our measuring devices are too crude to see these tiny strings. (Superstrings p.4/5)

So, how does this relate to music?

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