UNM Theory and Composition Professor, Richard Hermann, on Music Blocks

Dr. Richard Hermann is the professor of Music Theory and Composition for the Univeristy of New Mexico (UNM) and he was my music theory teacher during my undergraduate studies at UNM. Last week, I had the pleasure of meeting with Dr. Hermann in person and was able to show him Music Blocks’ overall design and current features.

This was his response in an email the following day:

I think Music Blocks will inspire many young folks to become programmers, mathematicians, composers, and music theorists. It will also provide important experiences to other young folk who pursue other fields. You are to be congratulated on your efforts.

Richard Hermann, PhD, Prof. of Music Theory and Composition, University of New Mexico

In addition to his praise, Dr. Hermann offered valuable advice to improve the underlying design of Music Blocks. Most notably, he quickly identified that Invert Block was missing the feature to rotate on axes that lie between the twelve semitone pitches. To remedy this, Walter Bender implemented an Invert Odd Block (click to see the commit) to compliment our current Invert (Even) Block.  Other advised improvements will be noted as they are implemented.