Boyne Music Festival: Marcus du Sautoy
Join renowned mathematician Marcus du Sautoy for an intimate discussion at Townley Hall on the subject of of symmetry in music.
Many composers have exploited ideas of symmetry in their work. Mathematician Marcus du Sautoy explains how Bach uses symmetry in his puzzle canons and explores whether AI can learn these tricks and write music like Bach. Can you tell the difference between Artificial Bach and Real Bach? Marcus and pianist Luke Lally Maguire will test the audience with a musical Turing test.
To mark the the 100th anniversary of Iannis Xenakis’ birth, Marcus explains how Xenakis uses the symmetry of a cube to determine musical parameters in Nomos Alpha for solo cello, performed by Julie-Anne Manning. The performance will be accompanied by a visual animation created by Marcus and artist Simon Russell.
Marcus Du Sautoy OBE is the Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science and a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford.