Public Lecture Abstract

Wednesday, August 13, 2008 • 7:30 PM • James A. Little Theater, New Mexico School for the Deaf

Dmitri Tymoczko Arthur Scribner Bicentennial Preceptor and Assistant Professor, Music, Princeton University

The Geometry of Consonance: Music and Mathematics

Elementary concepts of music theory can be translated into the language of contemporary geometry. Musical chords live in interesting geometrical spaces called "orbifolds"—spaces that contain unusual twists and strange "singularities" analogous to the black holes of General Relativity. Tymoczko provides an accessible, multimedia introduction to this new way of thinking about music, in which the audience can both listen to and watch pieces of music as they move along cones, Mobius strips, and other geometric objects. He will conclude by explaining how Chopin's famously mysterious E minor prelude traces an intriguing path along a necklace of four-dimensional cubes.