(04-29-2013, 07:27 PM)cherelann Wrote: After trying to read and understand the articles and listening to Mr. Bernstein's lecture I realize how little I know about music. I was never much good at mathematics either. It is fascinating to realize there are so many layers to music that are universal and at the same time different culturally. If we want world peace maybe we should start with music...
Haley has certainly been doing her part. 
Cherelann, I haven't had the opportunity to read or listen, and probably won't until the weekend, but I've always enjoyed the Bernstein's lectures that I've heard before (perhaps I've already heard this one, but a refresher surely can't hurt!), so I look forward to this.
However, while I truly appreciate your respectfulness toward him, somewhere between Danny Kaye's (checking the soles of his shoes) "does Lenny chew gum?" and "Mr. Bernstein" or "maestro," probably lies the real man, a human being, and, I think, a warm individual, at that. He's brilliant -- no doubt about that, but like the rest of us, I'm reasonably certain he put his socks on one at a time. (My point being that sometimes "respect" is a mask for intimidation -- not that I think that's the case for you -- but I do know that it happens.)
As for the mathematics, again, I haven't listened to the lecture (assuming that's where the reference rises), but in the medieval universities, the seven liberal arts of the "curriculum" were grouped into the "trivium" and the "quadrivium": the former consisting of the "arts" of grammar, rhetoric, and logic, and the latter, the "sciences" of geometry, arithmetic, astronomy, and music -- specifically music theory. All of the "sciences" were either obviously a form of math, or dealt with (i.e. music theory) or required math abilities (astronomy).