Guerino Bruno Mazzola (born 1947) is a Swiss

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

musicologist Musicology (from Greek μουσική ''mousikē'' 'music' and -λογια ''-logia'', 'domain of study') is the scholarly analysis and research-based study of music. Musicology departments traditionally belong to the humanities, although some m ...

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

pianist as well as a writer.

Education and career

Mazzola obtained his PhD in mathematics at

University of Zürich The University of Zürich (UZH, german: Universität Zürich) is a public research university located in the city of Zürich, Switzerland. It is the largest university in Switzerland, with its 28,000 enrolled students. It was founded in 1833 f ...

in 1971 under the supervision of Herbert Groß and Bartel Leendert van der Waerden. In 1980, he habilitated in

Algebraic Geometry Algebraic geometry is a branch of mathematics, classically studying zeros of multivariate polynomials. Modern algebraic geometry is based on the use of abstract algebraic techniques, mainly from commutative algebra, for solving geometrical ...

and

Representation Theory Representation theory is a branch of mathematics that studies abstract algebraic structures by ''representing'' their elements as linear transformations of vector spaces, and studies modules over these abstract algebraic structures. In essen ...

. In 2000, he was awarded the medal of the Mexican Mathematical Society. In 2003, he habilitated in

Computational Science Computational science, also known as scientific computing or scientific computation (SC), is a field in mathematics that uses advanced computing capabilities to understand and solve complex problems. It is an area of science that spans many disc ...

at the

. Mazzola was an associate professor at

Laval University Laval means ''The Valley'' in old French and is the name of: People * House of Laval, a French noble family originating from the town of Laval, Mayenne * Laval (surname) Places Belgium * Laval, a village in the municipality of Sainte-Ode, Lux ...

in 1996 and at Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris in 2005. Since 2007, he is professor at the

School of Music A music school is an educational institution specialized in the study, training, and research of music. Such an institution can also be known as a school of music, music academy, music faculty, college of music, music department (of a larger ins ...

at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...

. From 2007 to 2021 he was the president of the Society for Mathematics and Computation in Music. Mazzola is well known for his music theory book ''The Topos of Music''. The result has drawn consent from Alexander Grothendieck (''Das ist wohl schon die Mathematik des neuen Zeitalters.'') and dissent from

Dmitri Tymoczko Dmitri Tymoczko is a composer and music theorist. His music, which draws on rock, jazz, and romanticism, has been performed by ensembles such as the Amernet String Quartet, the Brentano Quartet, Janus, Newspeak, the San Francisco Contemporary Playe ...

, who said of Mazzola: "If you can't learn algebraic geometry, he sometimes seems to be saying, then you have no business trying to understand

Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition r ...

Records

Mazzola has recorded several

free jazz Free jazz is an experimental approach to jazz improvisation that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s when musicians attempted to change or break down jazz conventions, such as regular tempos, tones, and chord changes. Musicians duri ...

CDs with musicians like Mat Maneri, Heinz Geisser, Sirone,

Jeff Kaiser Jeffrey Patrick Kaiser (born July 24, 1960) is an American former Major League Baseball pitcher. Kaiser attended Aquinas High School in Southgate, Michigan where he was teammates with Paul Assenmacher. He played college baseball at Western Michi ...

, Scott Fields, Matt Turner and Rob Brown. His 2010 album ''Dancing the Body of Time'' was recorded in concert at the Pit Inn in Tokyo.

Playing style

A reviewer of ''Dancing the Body of Time'' mentioned similarities between Mazzola's playing style and that of

Cecil Taylor Cecil Percival Taylor (March 25, 1929April 5, 2018) was an American pianist and poet. Taylor was classically trained and was one of the pioneers of free jazz. His music is characterized by an energetic, physical approach, resulting in complex ...

. This was also mentioned by the

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Music ...

reviewer of Mazzola's earlier ''Toni's Delight: Live in Seoul'', who also stated that Mazzola "infuses his incredible technique with a blues aesthetic and a sometimes-romantic stamp, overwhelming everything in his path".

Bibliography

*''Gruppen und Kategorien in der Musik''. Hermann (1985) . *''Rasterbild - Bildraster, CAD-gestützte Analyse von Raffaels "Schule von Athen"''. Springer (1987) . *''Geometrie der Töne''. Birkhäuser (1990) . *''Ansichten eines Hirns''. Birkhäuser (1990) . *''The Topos of Music, Geometric Logic of Concepts, Theory, and Performance''. Birkhäuser (2002) . *''Perspectives in Mathematical Music Theory.''. EpOs (2004). . *''Comprehensive Mathematics for Computer Scientists I & II'
here
and

Errata An erratum or corrigendum (plurals: errata, corrigenda) (comes from la, errata corrige) is a correction of a published text. As a general rule, publishers issue an erratum for a production error (i.e., an error introduced during the publishing pro ...

br>here
*''Elemente der Musikinformatik''. Birkhäuser (2006) . *''La vérité du beau dans la musique''. Delatour/IRCAM (2007) . *''Flow, Gesture, and Spaces in Free Jazz—Towards a Theory of Collaboration''. Springer (2009) . *''Musical Performance''. Springer (2011) . *''Musical Creativity—Strategies and Tools in Composition and Improvisation''. Springer (2011) . *''Computational Musicology in Hindustani Music''. Springer (2014) . *''Computational Counterpoint Worlds''. Springer (2015) . *''Cool Math for Hot Music''. Springer (2016) . *''All About Music''. Springer (2016) . *''The Topos of Music, 2nd ed. Vol. I: Theory''. Springer (2017) . *''The Topos of Music, 2nd ed. Vol. II: Performance''. Springer (2017) . *''The Topos of Music, 2nd ed. Vol. III: Gestures''. Springer (2017) . *''The Topos of Music, 2nd ed. Vol. IV: Roots''. Springer (2017) . *''Basic Music Technology''. Springer (2018) . *''The Future of Music''. Springer (2020) . *''Making Musical Time''. Springer (2021) . *''Functorial Semiotics for Creaticity in Music and Mathematics''. Springer (2022) .

Discography

*Mazzola/Piano Solo Kelvin Null OMP Records 1001 LP *Mazzola/Piano Solo Akroasis Wergo SM 1024 LP *Mazzola/Moor/Sollberger Aus dem Hinterhalt OMP Records 1002 LP *Q4 Orchestra Lyons' Brood Creative Works CW 1018 CD *Guerino Mazzola Synthesis SToA music ST-71.1001 CD *Jan Beran Immaculate Concept SToA music ST-71.1002 CD *Q4 Orchestra Yavapai Creative Works CW 1028 CD *Rissi/Mazzola/Geisser Fuego Creative Works CW 1029 CD *Brown/Mazzola/Geisser ''

Orbit In celestial mechanics, an orbit is the curved trajectory of an object such as the trajectory of a planet around a star, or of a natural satellite around a planet, or of an artificial satellite around an object or position in space such as ...

'' Music & Arts CD-1015 CD *Mazzola/Geisser Toni's Delight

Cadence Jazz Records Cadence Jazz is an American record company and label specializing in noncommercial modern jazz. It is associated with '' Cadence Magazine''. Cadence Jazz was founded by Bob Rusch in Redwood, New York in 1980. By 2000 the label had issued mo ...

1090 CD *Mazzola/Geisser/Fields/Turner Maze Quixotic Records 5002 CD *Mazzola/Geisser /Fields/Maneri Heliopolis

1122 CD *Mazzola/Geisser Folia

Silkheart Records Silkheart Records is a Swedish record company and label dedicated to improvised music and free jazz. Lars-Olof Gustavsson and Keith Knox founded Silkheart in 1985. In 1991, Jimmy Johnson of Forced Exposure suggested that Silkheart "could easily ...

SHCD 153 CD *Mazzola/Geisser/Rissi Tierra

1130 CD *Mazzola/Geisser/Rissi Agua

, 1150 CD *Mazzola/Geisser Someday

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

1130 CD *Mazzola/Geisser/Kaiser/Sirone Liquid Bridges CD in Springer book ''Flow, Gesture, and Spaces'' *Mazzola/Geisser/Onuma Dancing the Body of Time

1239 CD *Mazzola/Park Passionate Message

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 *Mazzola/Lubet Subtle pfMentum PFMCD141

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mazzola, Guerino 20th-century Swiss mathematicians 21st-century Swiss mathematicians Free jazz pianists Swiss jazz pianists Swiss music theorists 1947 births Living people People from Dübendorf Cadence Jazz Records artists 21st-century pianists University of Zurich alumni University of Minnesota faculty École Normale Supérieure faculty Université Laval faculty