Guerino Mazzola

Guerino Mazzola (* 2. February 1947 in Uster ) is a Swiss mathematician , musicologist , jazz - pianist and author.

Life

Mazzola studied mathematics , crystallography and theoretical physics at the University of Zurich from 1966 to 1971 . He received his doctorate in mathematics in 1971 under Herbert Groß and Bartel Leendert van der Waerden (The Theorem on the Decomposition of Finsler Numbers into Prime Factors), then worked as a post-doc in Paris and Rome and completed his habilitation in algebraic geometry and representation theory in 1980 . In 2000 he was awarded the Mexican Mathematical Society medal. In addition, he completed his habilitation in scientific computing in 2003 , also at the University of Zurich. B. had developed composition software (Presto). Mazzola is currently a professor at the University of Minnesota School of Music . He was also a visiting professor at the École normal supérieure, among others .

Mazzola had classical piano lessons as a child and attended the (first, only short-term) jazz school in Zurich from 1961 to 1964. From the 1970s he also appeared as a jazz pianist. He has recorded various free jazz CDs with musicians such as Mat Maneri , Heinz Geisser , Sirone , Scott Fields , Matt Turner and Rob Brown .

In his work The Topos of Music der Mathematischen Musikheorie Mazzola applies complex mathematical concepts such as the topos theory to musicology. His statements are partly controversial among musicologists; recognized, among others, by: Alexander Grothendieck ( That is probably the mathematics of the new age. ), Yuri Manin , Yves André , François Nicolas and Thomas Noll, controversial among others by: Dmitri Tymoczko ( If you can't learn algebraic geometry, he sometimes seems to be saying, then you have no business trying to understand Mozart. ). His book Geometry of Tones gives an introduction to mathematical music theory.

bibliography

Books

• Groups and categories in music . Hermann (1985) ISBN 3-88538-210-5 .
• Geometry of tones. Birkhäuser (1990) ISBN 3-7643-2353-1 .
• The Topos of Music, Geometric Logic of Concepts, Theory, and Performance. Birkhäuser (2002) ISBN 3-7643-5731-2 .
• (with Gérard Milmeister and Jody Weissmann) Comprehensive Mathematics for Computer Scientists I & II. here ( Memento from March 12, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) and Erata here ( Memento from July 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
• Elements of music informatics . Birkhäuser (2006) ISBN 3-7643-7745-3 .
• La vérité du beau dans la musique . Delatour / IRCAM (2007) ISBN 2-7521-0029-9 .
• (with Paul Cherlin) Flow, Gesture and Spaces in Free Jazz - Towards a Theory of Collaboration. Springer (2009) ISBN 978-3-540-92194-3 .
• Musical Performance: A Comprehensive Approach: Theory, Analytical Tools, and Case Studies. Springer (2011) ISBN 978-3-642-11837-1 .
• (with Joomi Park and Florian Thalmann) Musical Creativity: Strategies and Tools in Composition and Improvisation. Springer (2011) ISBN 978-3-642-24516-9 .
• (with Soubhik Chakraborty, Swarima Tewari and Moujhuri Patra) Computational Musicology in Hindustani Music . Springer (2014) ISBN 978-3-319-11471-2 .
• (with Octavio Agustin-Aquino and Julien Junod) Computational Counterpoint Worlds . Springer (2015) ISBN 978-3-319-11235-0 .
• (with Maria Mannone and Yan Pang) Cool Math for Hot Music . Springer (2016) ISBN 978-3-319-42935-9 .
• (with Maria Mannone, Yan Pang, Maggie O'Brien, Nathan Torunsky) All About Music . Springer (2016) ISBN 978-3-319-47433-5 .
• The Topos of Music, 2nd ed. Vol. I: Theory . Springer (2017) ISBN 978-3-319-64364-9 .
• The Topos of Music, 2nd ed. Vol. II: Performance . Springer (2017) ISBN 978-3-319-64444-8 .
• The Topos of Music, 2nd ed. Vol. III: Gestures . Springer (2017) ISBN 978-3-319-64481-3 .
• The Topos of Music, 2nd ed. Vol. IV: Roots . Springer (2017) ISBN 978-3-319-64495-0 .
• Basic Music Technology . Springer (2018) ISBN 978-3-030-00982-3 .
• The Future of Music . Springer (2020) ISBN 978-3-030-39708-1 .

Magazine articles

• Guerino Mazzola and Ernst Hunziker: Beauty is a question of symmetry. In: Prisma - The Swiss Monthly Magazine, 1/2 (Jan./Febr.) 1980, pp. 45–51. (First popular scientific presentation of the topological dimension of music after Mazzola's dissertation was published.)
• Mathematical music theory: Status quo 1990. Annual report DMV, Vol. 93, 1991, pp. 6-29.

Discography

• Mazzola / Piano Solo: Kelvin Null, OMP Records 1001 LP
• Mazzola / Piano Solo Akroasis, Wergo SM 1024 LP ("Beethoven's Hammerklavier-Sonata in rotation (for Cecil Taylor)")
• Mazzola / Moor / Sollberger: From Ambush, OMP Records 1002 LP
• Q4 Orchestra: Lyons' Brood, Creative Works Records CW 1018 CD
• Guerino Mazzola: Synthesis, SToA music ST-71.1001 CD
• Jan Beran Immaculate Concept, SToA music ST-71.1002 CD
• Q4 Orchestra: Yavap, Creative Works CW 1028 CD
• Rissi / Mazzola / Geisser: Fuego, Creative Works CW 1029 CD
• Brown / Mazzola / Geisser Orbit, Music & Arts CD-1015 CD
• Mazzola / Geisser: Toni's Delight, Cadence Jazz Records 1090 CD
• Mazzola / Geisser / Fields / Turner: Maze, Quixotic Records 5002 CD
• Mazzola / Geisser / Fields / Maneri: Heliopolis, Cadence Jazz Records 1122 CD
• Mazzola / Geisser: Folia, Silkheart Records SHCD 153 CD
• Mazzola / Geisser / Rissi: Tierra, Cadence Jazz Records 1130 CD
• Mazzola / Geisser / Rissi: Agua, Cadence Jazz Records, 1150 CD
• Mazzola / Geisser: Someday, Silkheart 154 CD
• Mazzola / Geisser / Fields / Maneri: Chronotomy, BlackSaint 120173-2 CD
• Mazzola / Geisser / Kato / Saga: Live at Airegin, Ayler Records aylDL-056 CD
• Mazzola / Geisser / Rissi: Herakleitos, Ayler Records aylDL-069 CD
• Mazzola / Geisser / Rissi: Aire, Cadence Jazz Records 1130 CD
• Mazzola / Geisser / Kaiser / Sirone Liquid Bridges CD in Springer book Flow, Gesture, and Spaces
• Mazzola / Geisser / Onuma Dancing the Body of Time Cadence Jazz Records 1239 CD
• Mazzola / Park Passionate Message, Silkheart Records 159 CD
• Mazzola / Geisser / Kita Ma pfMentum PFMCD116
• Mazzola / Lubet Deep State pfMentum PFMCD119
• Mazzola / Geisser Live at Le Classique pfMentum PFMCD126
• Mazzola / Leo / Lubet / Zielinski / Holdman Negative Space pfMentum PFMCD136

literature

• Mathias Plüss: The formulas never sound sweeter . In: Die Weltwoche, February 26, 2005, online (PDF; 2.5 MB), deals primarily with The Topos of Music.
• Bruno Spoerri: Biographical Lexicon of Swiss Jazz. Chronos Verlag, Zurich 2005.
• Bruno Spoerri: Music out of nowhere. Chronos Verlag, Zurich 2010.

Web links

• Literature by and about Guerino Mazzola in the catalog of the German National Library
• Mazzola on the University of Minnesota website
• EncycloSpace
• Jazz homepage from Mazzola / Geisser

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Guerino Mazzola in the Mathematics Genealogy Project (English)
2. ↑ Grothendieck, A :: "Letter to Mazzola" . 1992.