Tim Lihoreau - Charting the Classics: Classical Music in Diagrams

Every day on Classic FM, were lucky enough to broadcast the worlds greatest music to our millions of listeners up and down the UK.

As well as playing brilliant recordings of the finest examples of the genre, made by the greatest soloists, ensembles and orchestras, were always on the lookout for other ways to share classical music that are slightly different and rather more offbeat. So, for this brand new book, we decided to take some of the best-loved pieces of classical music and to present them as a collection of mathematical diagrams and charts that you might more normally expect to see as part of a business presentation.

There has long been a connection between classical music and mathematics, and theres no better example of this than the composer Johann Sebastian Bach. He was fascinated with all things numerical, particularly the number 14. The attraction to these digits came after he gave each of the letters in his surname a number depending on where it comes in the alphabet. Youll find references to 14 in many of his musical works.

Theres no right or wrong way to read this book, but each diagram illustrates a different classical work. You can check out the full list of which classical work is on which page in the index at the back.

We broadcast the classical charts every week on Classic FM, based on sales of classical music CDs and digital downloads, so its been a novel experience for us to create charts that involve reading, rather than listening. We hope that you have as much fun looking at them as we have had in putting them together. Suitable building sites for Jerusalem