USIAS Fellows seminar : The music of mathematics
By Moreno Andreatta (2017 Fellow)
Popular music (pop, rock jazz and songs) represents a very rich object of study, particularly when it is analysed with the simple tools of mathematics and computer science. In this concert-conference we will provide an overview of some of the questions which are studied in the SMIR (Structural Music Information Research) project. This USIAS project, currently hosted by IRMA (Institut de recherche mathématique avancée), is carried out in collaboration with the musicologists of GREAM (Groupe de recherche expérimentale sur l'acte musical) in Strasbourg and researchers at IRCAM in Paris. We will focus, in particular, on the formalisation of musical chords, melodies and rhythms in songs and we will show how to analyse them in an original and elegant way through the concept of symmetry. This will enable us to understand the richness of this repertoire and to imagine how to enrich the tool box of the musician who wants to make use of these formal concepts in order to explore new compositional territories.
