ThumMusings

Bringing the user interface of music-making into the 21st Century, and changing the world... one note at a time.

: Name: ThumMeister; Location: Austin, Texas, United States

In the late 1980’s, I tried to write insanely great code for the Mac and help others do so, too. When Windows swept through the Valley in 1991-2, I realized my great code would become worthless if the Mac platform sank. I became very interested in knowing how to spot winning platforms. Since Microsoft clearly knew how to make its platforms succeed, I joined its Systems Strategy Group. While designing and executing practical "technology evangelism" campaigns, I studied the theory behind the practice, eventually teaching mandatory "how-to" seminars to Microsoft's new evangelists. I left Microsoft in 2000, looking for a new industry to disrupt. When my wife quit her piano lessons after six months of diligent practice, saying that “music is just too hard,” I knew I’d found it. Hammering the Web relentlessly, I found a novel combination of old ideas which could make music dramatically easier to teach, learn, & play, more emotionally expressive, and expand the frontiers of tonality. This blog tells the story of my bringing those innovations to market.

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Saturday, June 16, 2007

Euler's Tonnetz

Check out page 147 of Leonhard Euler's Tentamen Novae Theoriae Mvsicae, published in 1739. This work is often referred to as being the first known occurrence of a musical tonnetz ("harmonic lattice"), but I'd never seen the actual image before today.