Art and Science go way back. Certainly further than Bach and Newton, however these two have profoundly influenced the audio-visual experience we have today.

Christoph Wolff wrote in his essay, Bach’s Music and Newtonian Science: A Composer in Search of the Foundations of His Art, that “…our understanding of his musical philosophy benefits directly from placing it in the intellectual milieu of the Newtonian spirit of discovery. But Bach’s art of penetrating, exhausting, expanding, and transcending all conceivable possibilities of harmony – that is, of musical composition – is by no means only to be understood as a theoretical exercise. It is a spirit of musical discovery that reaches beyond pure intellect by speaking directly to the heart.”

Read the whole thing here: http://www.bachnetwork.co.uk/ub2/wolff.pdf

When trying to make sense of the audio and visual languages and how they are interpreted from one to the other, and the relationships of experience one must think of how emotion is key. Science can offer the “How” – Art can offer the “Why” and this happens in contrapuntal.

Who better to convey some contrapuntal emotion than Glenn Gould? Below is Bach’s The Art Of Fugue