A critical review of Nikita Braguinski's "Mathematical Music: From Antiquity to Music AI"

Abstract

This review Braguinski's 2022 book which traces mathematical approaches to music from ancient times to modern AI. The book argues that today's AI music systems are not revolutionary but evolutionary developments of mathematical music traditions dating back millennia. Structured in two parts ("Out of Continuities" and "Into Possibilities"), the book first explores historical developments: Pythagoras's numerical ratios, Llull's medieval combinatorial methods, Kircher's and Mersenne's early modern devices, and 19th-century technological innovations. A notable contribution is Braguinski's exploration of 1920s Soviet musical experimentation and its influence on American popular music through Joseph Schillinger. The second part examines modern computational approaches, with Braguinski skeptically analyzing AI's creative capabilities as extensions of earlier mathematical traditions rather than fundamental breaks. The book covers commercial applications including ambient soundscape generation, streaming recommendation systems, and functional music production. Despite its brevity (131 pages) limiting treatment of some topics and non-Western traditions, the book is praised for making complex ideas accessible and providing historical context for evaluating contemporary claims about AI music technology.