JAZZ & PHYSICS
Stephon Alexander’s The Jazz of Physics is a fascinating book that explores the relationship between music and physics. Dr Alexander, a theoretical physicist and jazz saxophonist, demonstrates how the two disciplines can be seen as complementary ways of understanding the world.
Alexander found it mind-boggling that musicians with different styles and techniques could come together to create something beautiful. This is similar to how physicists from different disciplines (e.g. thermodynamics, engineering, quantum mechanics) collaborate to try to understand the universe.
During one of his jazz gigs, Alexander started to think about the Big Bang, and how it is thought to have been a moment of extreme energy and chaos. It occurred to him that his sax improvisation was similar to the way that the universe was expanding and contracting in the moments after the Big Bang.
Music and physics can indeed be seen as two sides of the same coin. They are concerned with patterns and order, but in a different approach. Music is about creating patterns through improvisation, while physics is about discovering patterns through observation and experiment.
