The Numbers Song (c.1999)

The Video & Text

The Numbers Song outlines the protagonist's relationship with the world of mathematics. The text is deliberately hyperbolic and performed in a melodramatic manner, in a kind of darkly humorous allusion to the roles of Vincent Price. There are various references to the Metaphysical poets and the doctrines of Neoplatonism, ironised as a kind of jazz ballad. The later French text is a mnemonic for the number Pi (if you count the letters in the words they equate with the sequence 3.1415926...) Computer animations are employed to display various types of platonic objects ungoing morphing and deformations applied in the abstract mathematical space of the computer.

The Music

The numbers song is as much about numbers as it is about the often insipid lyrics of jazz songs. Could you imagine Frank Sinatra singing about the philosophy of mathematics? In this respect the initial sequence of the song ironises conventional jazz singing prior to moving into a darker dodecaphony. The French mnemonic for the number Pi in this second serial part acted as a basis for constructing some of the tone rows. This segues into a harmonically free section that accompanies the spoken text.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Animation
• Art
• New
• Media
• Mathematics
• Opera
• Pi