Afternoon Concert- Music, Geometry and Space

Pythagoras said “There is geometry in the humming of the strings, there is music in the spacing of the spheres”. This concert explores the connections between music, geometry and space —puzzled over by philosophers, scientists and composers alike — with a programme of pieces spanning over three centuries.

The programme starts and ends with music by William Herschel, who discovered the planet Uranus and became the first President of the Royal Astronomical Society. Not content with just one field, Herschel was a prolific composer and his Eighth Symphony is packed with cosmic beauty and telescopic depth. After its lively first movement, the orchestra rotates into something quite different – the music of American composer Missy Mazzoli which she describes as “music in the shape of a solar system”. Mazolli’s ‘Sinfonia (for orbiting spheres)’ makes inspired use of unusual instruments, such as the harmonica, and begins the concert’s spherical triptych. Later this will be completed with “Spheres” by Robert Laidlow, music that grapples with Pythagoras’ notion of a firmament moving according to celestial harmony, and “Sphere” by Emily Howard – an exploration of geometric space for orchestra.

In the middle of the concert there is a world premiere of music for piano and orchestra. Laidlow’s “Warp”, written for soloist Joseph Havlat, catapults the music far beyond the solar system into the very depths of space. Translating into music a theoretical warp-speed drive based on Einstein’s General Relativity, the music crushes and stretches its way into another galaxy. Upon arrival, we find something familiar: Benjamin Britten’s “Now The Great Bear and Pleiades” and music from the Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings, for which the orchestra is joined by tenor Alessandro Fisher.

As the concert completes its orbit, the music of Herschel returns; we finish with the remaining two movements of his Eighth Symphony.