For this year’s Lower Sixth Form Quadrivium lecture, Mr Kerr-Dineen presented his mathematical discoveries within Mozart’s Jupiter, the last symphony Mozart wrote. He revealed the influence of prime numbers, the Fibonacci sequence and the golden ratio in Mozart’s work, written over 200 years ago.

This year the talk was illustrated with extracts brilliantly played by the Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Gabriella Teychenné (OO).

Mr Kerr-Dineen’s passion for his field of research was clear from the start, promising an inspiring talk. Most memorably, we were invited along to share his excitement as we uncovered the patterns underpinning Mozart’s composition. The talk was not just a lecture on a topic in music and maths, it was itself wonderfully musical and mathematical. From pondering riddles and optical illusions to listening for climatic moments of Mozart’s music live, the experience was enthralling.

The orchestral additions were invaluable and their closing performance of the entire movement was particularly special. Mr Kerr-Dineen highlighted the famous quote from poet John Keats: “Beauty is truth, truth beauty, – that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know”, which exemplifies the striking quality of Friday’s performance. Beauty can be found in Mozart’s artistically rich music but also intellectually in its harmony with mathematical truths. This unexpected combination was astonishing but, as a Mr Kerr-Dineen modestly put it, perfectly obvious. He used a varied tour through anecdotes that illuminated the significance of these findings;  from the historical context, the musical details of sonata form, the golden ratio in the Greek Parthenon architecture, computational applications of the primes and even the evolutionary implications for magicicadas.

It was an absolute privilege to learn first-hand about Mr Kerr-Dineen’s discovery and expertise of Mozart’s unique composition. Looking forward to the 250th anniversary of Jupiter, it will be exciting to see the development of this breakthrough.

Kai (L)