Ada Lovelace Numbers and Notes

Oxford e-Research Centre

Ada Lovelace, Numbers, and Notes

A short journey into music, mathematics and computation at the time of Lovelace and Babbage

David De Roure and Pip Willcox 22 January2015

Ada Lovelace: Notes and Numbers

The Oxford e-Research Centre is grateful to the many supporters of this project, including RNCM, the Leverhulme Trust, the Transforming Musicology project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the FAST and SOCIAM projects supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, Centre for Digital Scholarship at the Bodleian Libraries, The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities, and our colleagues from Goldsmiths University of London and University of Liverpool. Photo credits: Science Museum, London; Angela Guyton; Stuart Bebb Photography; David De Roure; Terhi Nurmikko-Fuller. Slides: David De Roure and Pip Willcox. ‘Lovelace & Babbage’ by Sydney Padua.

Ada Lovelace

Sydn

ey Padua

Sydney Padua

Photo: Terhi Nurmikko-‐Fuller

10th December, 2015


Ada Lovelace

DMRN+9

To be continued…

Photo: David De Roure


Emily Howard

Photo: Angela Guyto


Libretto by Laura Tunbridge

We welcome you to a performance of 'Ada sketches' by Emily Howard, a short operatic work about the pioneering mathematician Ada Lovelace, performed by students from the Royal Northern College of Music. As well as the performance and presentation of the work given by composer Emily Howard (with mathematician Lasse Rempe-Gillen), audience members will be able to participate in the composition of mathematical music by working with the musicians to turn numbers into notes.

Part of ‘The Lovelace Trilogy’ composed in 2011, ‘Ada sketches’, a dramatic scena for mezzo-soprano (Ada), flute, clarinet and percussion with a libretto by Laura Tunbridge, explores a musical solution to a computation as solved in the hypothetical 1842 Analytical Engine. It is performed by RNCM Alumna mezzo-soprano Rosie Middleton and current RNCM students Lily Caunt (flute), Germán Martínez Merino (clarinet), and Aiden Marsden (percussion).

Ada sketches by Emily Howard


Rosie Middleton

Photo: Angela Guyto


Lily Caunt

Germán Martínez Merino

Aiden Marsden

Rosie Middleton

Emily Howard

Photo: David De Roure


Lasse Rempe-Gillen

Photo: Angela Guyto


Page title to go here

• Bullet point style to look like this

• Bullet point style to look like this and can go across multiple lines

• Bullet point style to look like this

• Bullet point style to look like this and can go across multiple lines

Photo: David De Ro

ure


Photo: Angela Guyto



Photo: Angela Guyto


Perform, Explain, Perform, Explain, Replay, Explain, …

PR, TickeHng, Event org

Science Museum, PR, percussion spec,

sHlls, handouts

Tmus materials

Ada sketches

Recording, Video, SHlls

Tmus materials

DRMN+10

Recording, Video, SHlls

Today Symposium

Dave’s hack


Stuart Bebb Photography








Ada Lovelace, a musical tribute World première performances at Blackwell Hall, Weston Library, Bodleian.

9th December 2015 Composed by James Whitbourn

Algorithmic study on ADA �(for violin and harp)

Ada Lovelace saw the possibility of musical applications for Babbage’s invention. In this short study for violin and harp, the harp part follows a strict algorithm beginning with the notes A, D, A. The notes are repeated and then played down an octave. That sequence of six notes is in turn repeated and above them added notes a major third higher. The pattern continues with the addition of alternately major and minor thirds, until it is completed in fourteen bars. The algorithm could readily be expressed in an Excel spreadsheet.

ADA (for choir, violin and harp)

The principal musical motif heard in the piece is derived from the letters of her birth name: ADA and A-ADA-B (Augusta Ada Byron). It so happens that the musical notes which correspond to her name, A, D, A, make up the two perfect intervals, the perfect fourth and perfect fifth. These are the only two intervals in equal temperament that have mathematical purity, since the perfect fifth is formed from the 2/3 and 1/3 division of the fundamental wavelength. Given the mathematical significance of Ada Lovelace, that seems a fitting coincidence. The sequence of notes �A, D, A is heard in the piece thirty-six times, one for each year of her life.




Sydn

ey Padua

The Mill

Steam Engine

Printer

Operations Variables

Numbers

Barrel Controllers

Ada Lovelace: Notes and Numbers Card: 1. (fib.ae:1) N0 35 Store: V0 = 35 Card: 2. (fib.ae:2) N1 20 Store: V1 = 20 Card: 3. (fib.ae:3) N2 0 Store: V2 = 0 Card: 4. (fib.ae:4) N3 1 Store: V3 = 1 Card: 5. (fib.ae:5) N4 1 Store: V4 = 1 Card: 6. (fib.ae:6) N5 1 Store: V5 = 1 Card: 7. (fib.ae:7) / Card: 8. (fib.ae:8) L2 Store: Mill <= V2(0) Card: 9. (fib.ae:9) L0 Store: Mill <= V0(35) Mill: 0 / 35 = 0, Rem: 0 Card: 10. (fib.ae:10) P 0 Card: 11. (fib.ae:11) L3 Store: Mill <= V3(1) Card: 12. (fib.ae:12) L0 Store: Mill <= V0(35) Mill: 1 / 35 = 0, Rem: 1 Card: 13. (fib.ae:13) P 1 Card: 14. (fib.ae:14) + Card: 15. (fib.ae:15) L2 Store: Mill <= V2(0) Card: 16. (fib.ae:16) L3 Store: Mill <= V3(1) Mill: 0 + 1 = 1 Card: 17. (fib.ae:17) S2 Store: V2 = 1 Card: 18. (fib.ae:18) L2 Store: Mill <= V2(1) Card: 19. (fib.ae:19) L3 Store: Mill <= V3(1) Mill: 1 + 1 = 2 Card: 20. (fib.ae:20) S3 Store: V3 = 2 Card: 21. (fib.ae:21) L4 Store: Mill <= V4(1) Card: 22. (fib.ae:22) L5 Store: Mill <= V5(1) Mill: 1 + 1 = 2 Card: 23. (fib.ae:23) S4 Store: V4 = 2 Card: 24. (fib.ae:24) -‐ Card: 25. (fib.ae:25) L4 Store: Mill <= V4(2) Card: 26. (fib.ae:26) L1 Store: Mill <= V1(20) Mill: 2 -‐ 20 = -‐18 Run up Card: 27. (fib.ae:27) CB?21 Card: 7. (fib.ae:7) / Card: 8. (fib.ae:8) L2 Store: Mill <= V2(1) Card: 9. (fib.ae:9) L0 Store: Mill <= V0(35) Mill: 1 / 35 = 0, Rem: 1 Card: 10. (fib.ae:10) P 1 Card: 11. (fib.ae:11) L3 Store: Mill <= V3(2) Card: 12. (fib.ae:12) L0 Store: Mill <= V0(35) Mill: 2 / 35 = 0, Rem: 2 Card: 13. (fib.ae:13) P 2

0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, 377, 610, 987, 1597, 2584, 4181, 6765, 10946, 17711, 28657, 46368, 75025, 121393, 196418, 317811, 514229, 832040, 1346269, 2178309, 3524578, 5702887, 9227465, 14930352, 24157817, 39088169, …

Fibonacci numbers �

F(n) = F(n-1) + F(n-2)�with F(0) = 0 and F(1) = 1


h`ps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pisano_period

Ada Lovelace: Notes and Numbers all F4-‐A5 D1-‐C4

Fib 35 Theme (F4-‐A5)

Fib 35 Puffle (D1-‐C4)

Piano

Harp

Piano

Xylophone

Tuba

3

444444

&

Fibonacci mod 35 ('Puffle')

Pip WillcoxDavid De Roure

for Analytical Engine, Piano, Harp, and Tuba

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h`p://demeter.oerc.ox.ac.uk/NumbersIntoNotes








•  Algorithms existed before Ada Lovelace. So did the Jacquard Loom.

•  Was Ada Lovelace the first person to think about programming a digital computer, and to consider whether it might do more than mathematical calculations?

•  Was Ada Lovelace the first computational thinker?How about the first digital scholar?


Jasmina Bolfek-‐Radovani Lily Caunt Tim Crawford David De Roure Iain Emsley Angela Guyton Clem Hadfield Adi Himpson Steve Holdbrook Emily Howard Richard Lewis Dyrol Lumbard Aiden Marsden Ursula MarHn Germán Marinez Merino Elizabeth McCarthy Victoria McGuinness Iris Mencke Rosie Middleton Daniel Mullensiefen Terhi Nurmikko-‐Fuller Kevin Page Lasse Rempe-‐Gillen Carolin Rindfleisch Mark Sandler David Weigl James Whitbourn Pip Willcox

Credits

Technology

Ada Lovelace Numbers and Notes