Notes to Nodes: River Flows in You (Yiruma, 2001) by Max Planck School of Cognition

This is the first piece in a triptych of three titled MAD (Music-Astronomy-Drugs). There is a shared musical, celestial, and psychedelic quality to all three pieces. Here I visualize the note transition frequencies for this popular Yiruma composition from the perspective of a pianist's hands, capturing the network the fingers trace as they play the song using circograms. The stroke width of each arc connecting the notes encodes these frequencies. This takes direct visual inspiration from my research on structural brain networks. The short textual Methods section included with the piece provides more details on the underlying analytical process. From a broader perspective, I hope the piece's likeness to a two-track DJ turntable, or to two twin stars undergoing an ecliptic planetary transit, is apparent. River Flows in You is an exceedingly simple melody, but it has never failed to bring me peace. I highly recommend listening along as you peruse the visual for full effect.