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From: ghot@s.ms.uky.edu (Allan Adler)
Newsgroups: rec.music.classical,sci.math,sci.chem,sci.bio,soc.history
Subject: Scientists and Mathematicians Who Wrote Music
Message-ID: <1991Feb14.203016.7687@ms.uky.edu>
Date: 14 Feb 91 20:30:16 GMT
Sender: ghot@ms.uky.edu (Allan Adler)
Organization: University of Kentucky
Lines: 36

Some scientists and mathematicians have also been composers. I am interested
in collecting and studying examples of their compositions. I don't confine my
inquiry to the ones that were famous or particularly talented in music. 

Here is all I know:

(1) Borodin was a chemist who also wrote music. He is quite famous for music
    and also known for his work in chemistry. So I probably can find out what
    I want from a library with no trouble in his case and I am not asking about
    him.

(2) Herschel, the astronomer, was also a choir director, or so I have heard.
    Apparently he made lots of arrangements for the choir but I don't know
    if he composed. Question: Where can one find the arrangements he made and
    what, if anything, did he compose himself ?

(3) Max Dresden was lecturing on historical aspects of thermodynamics and
    quantum mechanics at SUNY Stony Brook and mentioned, in a biographical
    sketch of Boltzmann, that Boltzmann took a year off to write a symphony.
    None of the historians of science I have spoken to can confirm or deny
    this. I can't find out from Dresden because he normally does not reply
    to correspondence from the likes of me. Question: Did Boltzmann write a
    symphony and if so how can one take a look at the score ? And was it
    ever performed ?

(4) In his autobiographical essay, Gotthold Eisenstein mentions that he also
    wrote music. People interested in Eisenstein are usually only interested
    his mathematics and not in his music so whatever there was may not have
    been preserved. But was it ? Are there any archives that might have such
    gems ?

I welcome any comments on the above questions and any suggestions for other
scientists and mathematicians who composed music.

Allan Adler
ghot@ms.uky.edu