The Physics of Music

Gordon Ramsey is Emeritus Professor of Physics at Loyola University Chicago. He received a Ph.D. from the Illinois Institute of Technology in 1982 and began teaching at Loyola.

Gordon was raised in a musical household. His father was a composer and jazz trumpet player and his mother was a church organist and classical pianist. His involvement in music began at five, when his mother gave him piano lessons while his father taught him chord structures. This paralleled his interest in mathematics, which combined well with music training. Gordon began studying the clarinet at ten and played in a championship high school band while in the eighth grade. At age fourteen, his father bought a tenor sax, which became an integral part of Gordon’s musical experience. He has played in numerous theater orchestras and jazz bands. He enjoys doing physics and still having the pleasure of music without worrying about where the next “gig” is going to be. He has done musical acoustics research and published with students for the past 20 years.