This video explains how 19th century French physicist Jules Antoine Lissajous used tuning forks to map out two-dimensional shapes, called Lissajous curves, that uniquely correspond to every musical interval, the difference in pitch between two notes.
Musician Reuben Levine notes:
"What I find fascinating about this chart is that some element of the character of each interval seems to come through in these visualizations. Nicer sounding intervals produce simpler shapes, and more dissonant intervals produce squigglier shapes."
Levine takes that concept a step further by creating three-note Lissajous curves that are not two-dimensional, but are three-dimensional. He then 3-D prints these three-dimensional Lissajous curves to show what these three-note chords "look"like in real space.
