Irish Mensa Lecture and Discussion: Is Music Infinite?

This lecture explores the very limits of music: Investigating historical efforts to catalogue musical materials including the melacarta of Carnatic music, the wazn of Arabic maqam, Slonimsky's Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns, Schillinger's Encyclopedia of Rhythms, Forte numbers, and contemporary attempts to 'pre-copyright' every possible melody yet to be written.

It also tackles the bigger questions: How much music might exist, whether it ever will be exhausted, and if there are any boundaries of our musical perception and imagination?

Our Speaker: Milton Mermikides is a composer, guitarist, technologist, academic, and educator in a wide range of musical styles and has collaborated with artists and scientists as diverse as Evelyn Glennie, Tim Minchin, Pat Martino, Peter Zinovieff, John Williams, and Brian Eno. Son of a CERN nuclear physicist, he was raised with an enthusiasm for both the arts and sciences, an eclecticism which has been maintained throughout his teaching, research, and creative career.

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Each month we watch a pre-recorded lecture from Gresham College and then discuss the concepts raised. Gresham College has been providing free public lectures since 1597, when Sir Thomas Gresham's vision of a college to bring the 'new learning' to Londoners was realized. Today we carry on Sir Thomas's vision, bringing some of the world's most brilliant minds to speak in fields ranging across the arts and sciences.

This event will begin at 7 p.m. in Dublin, or 2 p.m., Eastern time; 1 p.m., Central time; and 11 a.m., Pacific time. To learn the time where you are, use WorldTimeBuddy.

This is a FREE virtual event; NO registration is required.

Join Zoom meeting here.
Meeting ID: 873 9641 3278
Passcode: 850078

For more information, contact Mary Reilly.