19 November 2024, Talk "Quantum Music and Logic of Sound and Silence", Rakhat-Bi Abdyssagin

On 19th November, the composer, performer and music theorist Rakhat-Bi Abdyssagin from Kazakhstan will visit the ILLC to explore contacts with our community. Listen to his symphonic poem "Qubylys" while you learn about his musical activities or his most recent book published by Springer Nature.

During his visit, he will also give a talk titled "Quantum Music and Logic of Sound and Silence" discussing the connections between contemporary mathematics, logic, and philosophy with modern avant-garde music. See below for details and abstract.

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When: 19 Nov, 10:00-12:00 (welcome coffee and bites from 9:45, in front of the Auditorium)
Where: Auditorium in Matrix ONE & online
Zoom link: https://uva-live.zoom.us/j/81176774693

Abstract:
This presentation discusses applicability of logic and certain elements of analytic philosophy and mathematics into structural music analysis.

I will start with a brief overview of metaphorical correlations between quantum mechanics and avant-garde music. This will not only present views on interpretations of quantum mechanics, history and philosophy of the twentieth century physics, focusing on Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, Pauli exclusion principle, superposition, quantum entanglement etc., but will also serve as a prelude to the discussion of advanced composition techniques.

In music where pitches and rhythms are dominant and eloquently present, application of logic, mathematics and geometry is fruitful and has already been researched to a substantial extent. What this talk takes into consideration is the sonoristic direction of avant-garde music, where timbre-texture is the fundamental co-ordinate, while pitches and rhythms are emergent.

I will also introduce new and innovative concepts such as multi-dimensional 'nets' of techniques (as opposed to single-dimensional 'sets') and timbral-textural classes and morphisms (from category theory), and will investigate the applicability of logical space and possible worlds into music structure as well as vagueness and ambiguity of timbres and the role of epistemicism in music. It will be argued that probabilistic logic (and modal operators such as necessity and possibility) can be applied to timbral structures in music.