The Sound of Symmetry and the Symmetry of Sound
Please email external-relations@maths.ox.ac.uk to register
Symmetry has played a critical role both for composers and in the creation of musical instruments. From Bach’s Goldberg Variations to Schoenberg’s Twelve-tone rows, composers have exploited symmetry to create variations on a theme. But symmetry is also embedded in the very way instruments make sound. The lecture will culminate in a reconstruction of nineteenth-century scientist Ernst Chladni’s exhibition that famously toured the courts of Europe to reveal extraordinary symmetrical shapes in the vibrations of a metal plate.
The lecture will be preceded by a demonstration of the Chladni plates with the audience encouraged to participate. Each of the 16 plates will have their own dials to explore the changing input and can accommodate 16 players at a time. Participants will be able to explore how these shapes might fit together into interesting tessellations of the plane. The ultimate idea is to create an aural dynamic version of the walls in the Alhambra.
11 May 2017
5.00-6.00pm (demonstration from 2.30pm)
Mathematical Institute
Oxford
Please email external-relations@maths.ox.ac.uk to register
Date:
11 May 2017, 17:00 (Thursday, 3rd week, Trinity 2017)
Venue:
Mathematical Institute, Woodstock Road OX2 6GG
Venue Details:
Lecture Theatre 1
Speaker:
Marcus du Sautoy (University of Oxford)
Organising department:
Mathematical Institute
Organiser:
Dyrol Lumbard (University of Oxford)
Organiser contact email address:
lumbard@maths.ox.ac.uk
Host:
Dyrol Lumbard (University of Oxford)
Part of:
Oxford Mathematics Public Lectures
Booking required?:
Required
Booking email:
external-relations@maths.ox.ac.uk
Cost:
n/a
Audience:
Public
Editor:
Dyrol Lumbard
