EMILY HOWARD

The Music of Proof

A collaboration between composer Emily Howard and mathematician Marcus du Sautoy

New Scientist Live 2017

Emily Howard & Marcus du Sautoy with the Piatti String Quartet


Listen to Emily and Marcus discussing The Music of Proof with Sara Mohr-Pietsch on BBC Radio 3 Music Matters here.


The developing collaboration between composer Emily Howard and mathematician Marcus du Sautoy is grounded in an exploration of the connections and differences between their practices. Their first collaboration, The Music of Proof, hopes to tease out how similar the aesthetic and structural qualities are between proof and composition.

Marcus envisages the journey of mathematical proof as inherently musical and in response, Emily has created a set of miniatures for string quartet Four Musical Proofs and a Conjecture: five short movements, each associated with a different mathematical idea, each a poetic translation of a mathematical idea into sound.

The Music of Proof was first presented by Marcus and Emily at New Scientist Live 2017 with the world premiere performance of Four Musical Proofs and a Conjecture given by the Piatti String Quartet.

The Music of Proof has been supported by the Nicholas Boas Charitable Trust and New Scientist.


New Scientist Live 2017 :: PRiSM Collaboration :: Oxford e-Research Centre