[Math] Books on music theory intended for mathematicians

Question

Some time ago I attended a colloquium given by Princeton music theorist Dmitri Tymoczko, where he gave a fascinating talk on the connection between music composition and certain geometric objects (as I recall, the work of Chopin can naturally be viewed as walks among lattice points lying in some hyperbolic surface, which gives some sense of canonicity to his compositions). I am asking whether there exist books on music theory that is intended for an audience with a reasonably sophisticated mathematical background. This question is in the same spirit as this one regarding physics.

Any suggestions would be great!

Answer 1

There is the book by Tymoczko from which his lecture was no doubt drawn:

Tymoczko, Dmitri. A geometry of music: Harmony and counterpoint in the extended common practice. Oxford University Press, 2010.

                 

And this book is more combinatorial and algorithmic:

Toussaint, Godfried T. The Geometry of Musical Rhythm: What Makes a" good" Rhythm Good?. CRC Press, 2013. CRC link.

                 

And there is a nice AMS page on Mathematics & Music.

Finally, here is an impressive video by Chris Tralie on Geometric Analysis of Musical Audio Data. In particular, check out this YouTube video illustrating Purple Rain, We can work it out, among other well-known songs.

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                  ^{Purple Rain.}