I read in a music history textbook years ago that the music of Johann Sebastian Bach was so far ahead of his own time that listeners of that generation labelled his music “old-fashioned and out-of-date”.
Today, mathematicians are fascinated by the works of J. S. Bach more than any other composer in classical music, citing a strong connection between his music and an individual’s understanding of logic, reason, and mathematics.
In this article, a team of mathematicians cite the unpredictability of Bach’s music as exhibiting a unique mathematic quality: the information being relayed through the music is effectively conveyed, meaning that listeners would be more likely to understand the music based on their expectations of the musical passages.
This study, to me, further illustrates how amazing Bach’s music really is.
