Four Musical Proofs and a Conjecture

The 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.