Professional music critiques rarely poses any aptitude for mathematics. As they like to compare musical processes unintelligible to them with the equally darksome methods of mathematical thinking, especially they hated algebra: “The science of Mousier Berlioz is a sterile algebra” (P. Scudo, Critique et Littérature Musicales, Paris, 1852); “The music of Wagner imposes mental tortures that only algebra has a right to inflict” (Paul de Saint-Victor, La Presse, Paris, March 1861); “This theme serves [Ravel] for four movements [of the String Quartet] during which there is about as much emotional nuance as warms a problem in algebra” (New York Tribune, Dec 12, 1906)....

“[Mendelssohn] was certainly THE greatest composer under 18 that we know of (and yes I’m including Mozart in that), and his best music ranks up there with the best composers in history.” Sticky Notes | Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night’s Dream The Sticky Notes podcast had this wonderful episode about Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Nights Dream. It strikes the perfect balance: weaving together the composer’s background, the craft of his orchestration, and detailed comparisons of music passages....

Plants vs. Zombies has been my favorite game since childhood—through high school, and still today. During the pandemic, after binging through every level (twice), I found myself turning not to the gameplay but to its music. Graze the Roof is one of my favourite: PvZ soundtrack is remarkable. The composer and sound director Laura Shigihara was in a relationship with George Fan, the creator of the first game. I was obsessed....

Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G major is heavily influenced by Jazz (see this post Ravel and Gershwin and Their Obsession with Jazz). You can hear a lot of Jazz colored motives in the fast, vivid first movement (I. Allegramente). And, as Ravel famously remarked that “The most captivating part of jazz is its rich and diverting rhythm.” — even subtle Jazz influenced can be noticed in the breathtakingly beautiful slow movement (II....

Today at Booth’s PhD math camp, we revisited some foundational concepts in probability theory. Two key topics stood out to me: Frequentist vs. Bayesian Perspectives A crucial distinction lies in what we treat as random: Frequentist: Parameters (e.g., population mean $\mu$) are fixed, and randomness comes from the data. Example: $$ P(X \mid \mu) $$ We ask: Given a true mean $\mu$, how likely is it to observe sample mean $X$?...

The singer announced “the eternal sunshine Tour” almost two weeks ago. Presales launch today 10:00. I was aware of pop music concert’s popularity, yet I didn’t expected it to be such a rush: Queue for getting a ticket in Chicago… The Chicago United Center stadium can holds up to 23500 audience. The TicketMaster sales mechanism works as follows: you join the queue starting 9:30 and the sale goes on live 10:00, where queued consumer are then given a relatively chilled purchase opportunity before their follower join....

Here’s an interesting article from Chicago Booth review. Probably my favourite out of its Fall 2025 issue. One Way to Increase the Supply of Kidneys — Animal organs could save people’s lives, but which patients should participate in trials? Gina Potthoff Kacik | June 2025 Background: The National Kidney Registry estimates that a deceased-donor kidney from a human typically remains viable for 10–15 years after it is transplanted into another person, but no one yet knows exactly how long a xenokidney will last....

The July 2025 Sigecom Exchanges Newsletter has this really interesting article that our advisor reposted in our WeChat group: EconCS in Industry: Skills to Succeed as an Applied Scientist Devanur, Paes Leme and Schrijvers link It applies more to EconCS students from the CS side, but the key points are universal for anyone wishing for industry I guess. Some key takeaways: Exploratory Data Analysis Exploratory Data Analysis is the iterative process of learning properties of the data that you’re working with....

The cello’s range overlaps closely with the human voice. Its size, timbre, and resonance make it one of the most human of instruments — intimate, lyrical, and capable of expressing conversations, inner thoughts, growth, and epiphanies. Here are three pieces where the cello doesn’t just play fancy cadenzas: Awakening Back when I was with the Guangzhou Symphony Youth Orchestra, we performed Duo by composer 赵麟. It was a piece commissioned by our orchestra, and we were lucky to have the composer around during some rehearsals, which made the work feel even more alive....

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