Pitches and Prime Numbers?

I don't see the appeal of mixing and matching natural numbers (discrete) and sound frequencies (continuum). The mystique of primes would be lost because of arbitrary (though conventional) frequency units (i.e. Hz depends on the definition of second, nm depends on definition of meter).

Originally Posted by Gardener

Tsk, tsk. A mathematican speaking of 9 as a prime number?

Figured something was funny about that. Oh well!

Originally Posted by cygnusdei

I don't see the appeal of mixing and matching natural numbers (discrete) and sound frequencies (continuum). The mystique of primes would be lost because of arbitrary (though conventional) frequency units (i.e. Hz depends on the definition of second, nm depends on definition of meter).

The arbitrariness of what 1 Hz is doesn't really matter though, since the proportions between the primes still stay the same. If, say, Hertz was defined as oscillation per 2 seconds, the resulting tone row would be just an octave lower, but the intervals would stay the same.

I don't find prime numbers as frequencies very interesting musically per se but they do have musical uses: Sometimes you need to use numbers that have no common denominator in computer music, for which prime numbers are of course an excellent source.

My only thought is that as primes occur at a somewhat close-to-predictable pattern (near a logarithmic function i cant remember right now, when plotted as a graph) the music would sound too predictable. I think using functions without a "fractal" component most of them creates boring stuff. Not being an expert the idea in the original post is worth at try.

Check some sites on fractal music if you find computer (or algorithmic) generated music as a topic interesting. I did want to write such a program once, but my knowledge is not really updated recently

True, they are slightly predictable. (not completely, other wise there would be function to out put only/all prime numbers)

if you want a more interesting graph, (might produce more interesting music), graph the rate of change of the prime numbers. looks kindof sinusoidal (if i spelt that right). this reminds me more of sound than just straight prime numbers.