What is the origin of music, in particular, classical music? Composers have often used non-musical sounds to influence their compositions (Beethoven's thunderstorm or Mahler's failing heart). Is it not possible, then, that there is a direct correlation between the sounds of human speech and classical music? This thesis will uncover that connection through audio demonstrations and a Flash Application.

Background
Leonard Bernstein's Havard Lectures

Implementation
I will create an application in Flash that demonstrates the connection between the sound of speech and music using audio files that are linked to a series of 64 buttons. The top tow of buttons play when pressed one to two second excerpts from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I have a dream" speech. Below each excerpt are buttons that play music examples that are derived from the speech except. The second row are direct musical representations of the sound of speech in each excerpt and below them are variations on those melodic fragments.