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*****Home***** Sessions Course credit Featured Speakers |
MST 2003 Featured Speaker: Don Hauser The MST conference includes a special group of Featured Speakers and Performers this year. Each of our speakers combine Math, Technology, or Science with the Arts in a unique way.
Don Hauser is a keyboard and technology explorer who will travel from the south to join us and Ron. Don has 38 years of experience in the Fullerton Union High School District, and he works at CSU Fullerton where he supervises math student teachers, runs seminars, etc. If you liked Ron's featured presentation on F night you'll want to come to the Saturday session with Don and our guest keyboardist. Here is a synopsis of Don's talk, which is based on his article titled "Roots in Music" which appeared in the Jan. 2002 Mathematics Teacher magazine: Back in the time of JS Bach, there was no standard relationship between the pitches on a keyboard. That is, the ratios of consecutive notes (in terms of vibrations per second) were not always the same. Hence it was difficult, if not impossible, to transpose a melody into different keys from the one it was written in. Furthermore, there was no standardization of tuning from one keyboard to another. The "even-tempering" of the keyboard was a major step forward in music composition and performance. The mathematics involved requires little more than an understanding of basic equation solving and roots. This talk will illustrate the relationships between wave patterns of several pitches and the mathematics involved in the early tempering of the keyboard. Selections from Bach's "The Well-Tempered Klavier" will illustrate. |