5 9
Numbers
Choir: SATB div. a cappella
Duration: ~5 minutes
RELATED: #Joy #Fast #Humor #Aleatoric
Numbers establish the foundations of our musical and daily lives. Throughout history, positional numerical systems have allowed humans to organize the world around them. The Babylonian system, for example, was sexagesimal (base 60) and did not numerically represent zero— remnants of this system can still be seen today in the way we measure time (60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour) and circles (360 degrees). The most common system of today is the decimal system, but our world is increasingly powered by technology that, at its most fundamental level, consists of 0s and 1s. For musicians, numbers are critical in the rehearsal process especially: we use them to count time, measure melodic and rhythmic distances, and position ourselves within the context around us. Creating music— indeed, living our lives— seems unimaginable without numbers; they certainly deserve their own performance.