PVS Music Director Paul Phillips was the Keynote Speaker at the Greenfield Community College Foundation's 39th Annual Meeting on Tuesday, September 18, 2007, at Famous Bill's Restaurant, 30 Federal Street in Greenfield. 

Here's the text of his remarks:

Einstein's Violin: Where Music and Science Intersect

As music director of the Pioneer Valley Symphony, I have had the privilege for the past thirteen years of leading an organization whose membership includes many highly educated individuals active in a wide array of fields. For many years, the concertmaster of the PVS has been Janet van Blerkom, a Smith College physicist. Other members include professors of mathematics, history and German; attorneys, including the immediate past president of the Massachusetts Bar Association; medical personnel, including surgeons, physicians, nurses, hospital technical personnel and a veterinarian; and experts in many other disciplines. Although most members of the Pioneer Valley Symphony and Chorus make their living outside of music, they consider singing or playing an instrument such a vital part of their life that they devote at least one night a week to rehearsals and many additional days and nights throughout the year to extra rehearsals and performances.

The association between music and other fields has long been a matter of great interest to me. Recently I completed a book on the interrelationship between music and literature in the life and works of Anthony Burgess, but years before I began writing about Burgess's dual creative life as a composer and novelist, I became intrigued by the relationship between music and science. In 1995 I composed an orchestral piece that arose from my fascination with contemporary scientific theories as described by physicist Michio Kaku in his book Hyperspace. Kaku explained how physicists' attempts throughout the 20th century to determine all the types of subatomic matter had yielded only an ever-increasing list of particles known by such charming names as hadrons, leptons, muons, and quarks. The ultimate explanation, according to Kaku, might lie in "string theory". According to this theory, the "string" – an entity about 100 billion billion times smaller than a proton – is the ultimate basic unit of matter. Kaku described it like this:

"...think of a violin string, which can vibrate at different frequencies, creating musical notes like A, B, and C.... The note A is no more fundamental than the note B. However, what is fundamental is the string itself. There is no need to study each note in isolation of the others. By understanding how a violin string vibrates, we immediately understand the properties of an infinite number of musical notes.... According to [string] theory, matter is nothing but the harmonies created by this vibrating string. Since there are an infinite number of harmonies that can be composed for the violin, there are an infinite number of forms of matter that can be constructed out of vibrating strings.... The laws of physics can be compared to the laws of harmony allowed on the string. The universe itself, composed of countless vibrating strings, would then be comparable to a symphony."

I was astonished to find musical imagery at the heart of a book about subatomic physics – the mysterious workings of the cosmos described in terms of a violin string! Inspired by this image, I decided to compose a piece that would use a concept from physics as a compositional element. I chose Brownian motion, the irregular motion of small particles suspended in a liquid or a gas. In 1905, Albert Einstein published an important paper on the subject that confirmed the atomic theory of matter and was widely regarded as the first proof that atoms exist. In my composition, "musical particles" made up of specific strings of notes are subjected to irregular motion in the form of changing rhythms. I called the work Brownian Motion, a title chosen as an homage to Einstein and an irresistible pun on the name of the university whose orchestra I have led since 1989.

A new biography of Einstein by Walter Isaacson, published earlier this year by Simon & Schuster, discusses Einstein's relationship to music in detail. When he was about 5 years old, his mother, an accomplished pianist, arranged for Albert to take violin lessons. Einstein did not warm to the instrument at first, but once he became acquainted with Mozart's violin sonatas, he fell in love with music, which "became both magical and emotional to him." Soon he was playing Mozart, accompanied by his mother. "Mozart's music is so pure and beautiful that I see it as a reflection of the inner beauty of the universe itself," he would later tell a friend. "Of course, like all great beauty, his music was pure simplicity," this remark about Mozart reflecting Einstein's view of math and physics as well. Einstein's love of music, especially Mozart's, reflected his overall admiration for the harmony of the universe. As noted one early biographer (Alexander Moszkowski), who wrote a biography of Einstein in 1920 based on conversations with the great physicist, "Music, Nature, and God became intermingled in him in a complex of feeling, a moral unity, the trace of which never vanished."

In June 1905, Einstein finished formulating the Special Theory of Relativity, the revolutionary paper in which he demonstrated that there was no such thing as absolute space or absolute time, and related mass, energy and the speed of light in the renowned equation e = mc². Two years later, in November 1907 (almost exactly one hundred years ago), Einstein began pondering how to extend his Special Theory into a General Theory of Relativity that would incorporate Newton's theory of gravity and apply to systems in accelerated motion, not just ones moving at constant velocity, as in the Special Theory. It took Einstein eight years to accomplish this Herculean task. When his General Theory of Relativity, which predicted the degree to which a light beam would be bent by gravity, was confirmed in 1919 by photographs of a solar eclipse, he immediately became an international celebrity. How did Einstein celebrate this great event? By buying himself a new violin.

To Einstein, music was more than a hobby. According to his son Hans Albert, it was a key part of his thinking and creative process. In the words of Hans Albert, "Whenever he felt that he had come to the end of the road or faced a difficult challenge in his work, he would take refuge in music and that would solve all his difficulties." The violin was especially useful to Einstein while he lived alone in Berlin working on the General Theory of Relativity. During these years, "He would often play his violin in his kitchen late at night, improvising melodies while he pondered complicated problems. Then, suddenly, in the middle of plyaing, he would announce excitedly, 'I've got it!' As if by inspiration, the answer to the problem would have come to him in the midst of music."

As a student in Aarau (Switzerland) at the age of around 16, Einstein stood out as the most talented of the nine violinists in his class. One classmate recalled Einstein's passionate approach to a Mozart sonata – "What fire there was in his playing!" Once, playing 1st Violin in a work by Bach, his "enchanting tone and incomparable rhythm" awed the 2nd Violinist, who asked him, "Do you count the beats?" "Heavens, no," Einstein replied. "It's in my blood."

Music provided Einstein with a connection to the creative genius of the great composers and to what he perceived as the sense of harmony underlying the universe. The beauty of harmony, in physics as well as in music, filled him with awe. Bach and Mozart were Einstein's favorite composers. He loved the clear architectural structure of their music, which seemed drawn from the cosmos rather than composed by human hand, as was the case with more personal kinds of music, such as that of Beethoven. "Beethoven created his music," Einstein once declared, but "Mozart's music is so pure it seems to have been ever-present in the universe. I feel uncomfortable listening to Beethoven. I think he is too personal, almost naked. Give me Bach, rather, and then more Bach."

Einstein's opinions about composers whom he held in lower esteem are also fascinating. He admired Schubert's "superlative ability to express emotion", but was less enamored of Handel, who had "a certain shallowness", and Mendelssohn, whose music displayed "considerable talent but an indefinable lack of depth that often leads to banality." Wagner was faulted for a "lack of architectural structure I see as decadence", while Strauss was "gifted but without inner truth."

Even during some of the busiest periods of his life, Einstein made time for music. During his seven years as an examiner in the Swiss Patent Office in Zürich from 1902-1909, Einstein arrived at work at 8:00 a.m. six days a week and spent eight hours at the office. In addition, he worked as a private tutor, often teaching at least an hour a day to earn extra income. He was newly married to Mileva Maric, the father of a son, Hans Albert Einstein, born in May 1904, and occupied with much of the most intense, creative and important work that he would achieve in his lifetime. Yet despite these many obligations, Einstein played in a string quartet once a week (a time commitment similar, I might add, to those members of the Pioneer Valley Symphony and Chorus who devote one night a week to musical rehearsal). And he continued to play chamber music throughout his life.

Once Einstein became a Professor in 1909 at the University of Zürich, he regularly attended and played his violin at Sunday musicales hosted by a mathematics professor (Adolf Hurwitz) from the Zürich Polytechnic. Upon accepting a professorship in Prague in 1911, Einstein again became a regular participant in musical salons, where he rubbed shoulders with Franz Kafka, Max Brod and other members of that city's intelligentsia. After time spent in intense conversation with the Viennese physicist Paul Ehrenfest, a close friend whom he met in 1912, Einstein and Ehrenfest, a pianist, would play Brahms together to relax. Once Hans Albert, who studied the piano, grew into an able young man, Einstein played sonatas with him as well. When called upon to make a speech at academic or intellectual gatherings or at dinner parties, Einstein would sometimes take out his violin and, instead of speaking, play Bach or Mozart instead. In the 1920s, Einstein was introduced to Queen Elisabeth of Belgium, a music lover who played the piano. They played Mozart sonatas together and became lifelong friends.

Several of the enduring legends about Einstein date from the years he spent toward the end of his life in Princeton, when he would often give little impromptu performances at prayer meetings, for carolers at Christmastime, and even for trick-or-treaters on Halloween. At their home in Princeton, Einstein and his second wife Elsa would occasionally host musical recitals. Around 1933, at a Manhattan fundraiser to raise money for Jewish refugees from Europe, Einstein played the Bach Concerto for Two Violins in D minor and the Mozart G Major Quartet (which the PVS String Quartet will perform for you following this talk). There is the story of how Einstein once played in a quartet with Fritz Kreisler, the great violin virtuoso. At one point they went out of sync, whereupon Kreisler turned to Einstein and in mock exasperation sighed, "What's the matter, professor? Can't you count?"

In recent years, as scientists have deepened their knowledge of the workings of the brain, new theories have emerged to explain the role of music in human life and in the evolution of our species. In his book This is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession, Daniel J. Levitin surveys scientific inquiry into the relationship between mankind and music from Darwin up to the research taking place in 2006, the year his book was published. Darwin concluded "that musical notes and rhythm were first acquired by the male or female progenitors of mankind for the sake of charming the opposite sex. Thus musical tones became firmly associated with some of the strongest passions an animal is capable of feeling, and are consequently used instinctively." According to Darwin, humans possess an innate drive is to find a mate who is biologically and sexually fit, and in mankind's evolution, music was regarded as an indicator of such individuals, ones most likely to be able to produce healthy children able to attract mates of their own. He likened musical ability to the peacock's tail, an emblem of attractiveness to the opposite sex. In prehistoric times, the ability to sing and dance advertised a person's stamina and overall good health, physical and mental. Moreover, it demonstrated that one possessed ample resources; having sufficient food and shelter, one could spend one's time developing skills like music and dance not directly needed for survival.

To mention just a few of the many interesting points made by Levitin in his book, musical instruments are among the oldest man-made artifacts ever discovered, dating back tens of thousands of years. A flute carved out of the femur of a now-extinct bear and found in the region of present-day Slovenia is believed to be roughly 50,000 years old. Scientists like Levitin believe that music predated agriculture, that it has played an important role in social bonding and cohesion, and has promoted cognitive development. Music is believed to predate spoken language and may well be the activity that prepared prehistoric man for speech.

In instrumental music, as in mathematics, physics and related scientific fields, the fundamental language and deepest means of communication is non-verbal. Although musicians use spoken language to express to others their thoughts and feelings about their art, every musician knows that the most intense and memorable communication occurs during those magical moments when musicians, playing music together, either in rehearsal or in performance, experience heightened communication that transcends spoken language. It is very hard to put into words, but unmistakable when it occurs. Not only the players but the listeners too invariably become aware of these moments. Once the music is over, musicians will turn to the others next to them on stage and ask, "Did you feel that?" and the answer will be, "Yes. Wow! That was really something!"

When I sent Allen Davis the title of my talk six weeks ago, I was unaware, at least consciously, of a book with a similar title. Then, just six days ago, I received an email about a book titled Einstein's Violin: A Conductor's Notes on Music, Physics, and Social Change. Like the two books I've referred to earlier, this is a recent publication, published by Penguin Books in 2005. The author, Joseph Eger, writes, "For me, music, physics, and social concerns are intertwined tightly together like a Navajo rug. The warp and woof of this book is woven from these three threads into patterns illuminating the effects of each on the other." Like me, Eger is intrigued by the fact that physicists tend to use musical metaphors in their explanation of string theory. Hearkening back to Johannes Kepler, who spent his life trying to discover "the music of the spheres", Eger believes "that the universe is made of music" and that "music represents the oneness of all phenomena." He contends that "Since music is nothing more than wave and energy forms, you can postulate a theory that the universe is made up of music" and claims, "Some very prominent physicists have taken the theory seriously." Eger quotes neurologists who argue that music increases the brain's creative powers and enhances its physical circuitry, stimulating connections between the brain's right hemisphere (traditionally associated with imagery and considered dominant in artists, musicians, dancers and creative persons generally) and the left hemisphere (associated with logic, and considered dominant in engineers, businessmen and others who focus on logic and fact-based knowledge). Along with books like Michio Kaku's Hyperspace and Edward Rothstein's Emblems of Mind, Eger's book demonstrates that the intersection of music and science is a subject that fascinates experts in both areas.

From an historical perspective, it is striking that Einstein's ground-breaking work on relativity theory coincided exactly with the dawn of modern music as composed by Igor Stravinsky and Arnold Schoenberg around the years 1905-1915, not to mention Pablo Picasso and the beginnings of modern art. What kind of correlation do we find between the history of music and physics? If, in America, we want to enjoy a resurgence of interest in physics and space exploration, we would be well advised to do all we can to foster a love of music in our youth. One very tangible way to do that will be to construct a beautiful concert hall on the GCC campus, which I know is a dream that President Pura and many of you who are here tonight are doing all that you can to turn into a reality. Please know that all of us at the PVS strongly support that dream and will do everything we can to assist with this wonderful project.

In honor of Einstein's love of Mozart, let's listen now to some of Mozart's music. Here now are four members of the Pioneer Valley Symphony – Cecilia Berger and Wendi Melnik (violin), Anna Wetherby (viola), and Jeong Hee Kim (cello) – to perform Mozart's String Quartet No. 12 in G major, K. 156, a beautiful work in three movements: Presto, Adagio and a Minuet.

Thank you very much.

© 2007 Paul Schuyler Phillips