I saw the fastest human DNA sequencer machine today. Dr. Richard M. Myers showed me around at Hudson Alpha and spoke about the research being done there.
Dr. Myers is going to be one of my conversation partners at Huntsville Symphony’s third Casual Classics concert this Sunday afternoon. The concert is called “The Science of Music”- catchy title but somewhat misleading. We will not be talking about music theory or anything related to musicology. We will not be going into details about the physical properties of sound waves or what material should be used to cover the walls of concert halls. I for sure won’t be talking about the Human Genome project either. We are going to talk however about everything else that comes to mind. Dr. Robert A. Altenkirch President of University of Alabama Huntsville, a real life rocket scientist (hey, we are in Rocket City after all)
http://uah.edu
and Dr. William Wilkerson, Chair of the Philosophy Department at UAH are on the conversation panel as well.
http://uah.edu
Since I grew up with music all around me, it is second nature to me. So, I like to hear non-musicians talk about music. First and foremost, I want to hear what music means to my guests in their words. I want them to tell us in how music has helped them in their own life. We will also touch on the connections between music and different fields of science. We will be having a conversation, illustrated with live music played by the HSO, about topics like entropy (Haydn: Farewell Symphony), infinity (Bach: Never Ending Canon from The Musical Offering), construction and deconstruction (Bach-Webern: Ricercar).
Of course, I have my own strong opinion on how music is related to philosophy, genealogy and physics. Do you want to know what I think? Well then you are just going to have to come to Robert’s Hall at UAH at 3:30 p.m. this Sunday to find out. Who knows, I might even change my very strong opinion in the process… 🙂
