Functional Geometry and the /Traité de Lutherie/

Talk
Professor Harry Mairson
Brandeis University
Time: 
04.24.2015 11:00 to 12:00
Location: 

CSI Room 3117

I will describe a functional programming approach to the design of outlines of seventeenth-century string instruments. The approach is based on the research described in François Denis’s book, Traité de Lutherie. The programming vernacular for Denis’s instructions, which we call functional geometry, is meant to reiterate the historically justified language and techniques of this approach to musical instrument design. The programming metaphor is entirely Euclidean, involving straightedge and compass constructions. A language-based, functional approach to lutherie can abstract over common patterns in instrument design, where straightedge and compass constructions are like the underlying machine code. I also want to talk about using this tool in a kind of computational art history, understanding the evolution of instrument design, in particular the historical role of proportional design, and a plausible reconstruction of Stradivari’s “forma B” violoncello.