On Friday, I skipped my usual 45 minutes of assorted violin etudes to play pi. You know, the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter: 3.14 followed by an endless string of digits. For the price of $3.18, the significance of which is explained in the video below, I purchased pi, or the sheet music to the irrational number pi, from the website Ancient Melodies. This is the work of spiritualist and musician Jim Zamerski, who explains his pi translation efforts below:
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When I sat down for the first time to look into the digits of pi as music, it didn't take me more than two minutes to see that the first 17 digits contain that beautiful phrase. When I figured out the note that brings the phrase to perfect resolution, and played the first section through to the end for the first time, I heard the very voice of God. It's the most amazing moment of my life.
The voice of god? Not so much, but it does seem to work out musically. As for playing it … eh, it's fine but I think pi's musicality might actually be more disappointing than the alternative. That's part of the fun of it, after all: every circle in the universe reduces down to this one infinite fit of random digits. That's more Ben Frost than Shostakovitch, no?