Time Dilation, Synchronicity and Ligeti’s Etudes

Very interesting analogies can be found in Steven S. GubserGubser, Steven S.’s The Little Book of String Theory (2010), where the author compares certain phenomena of quantum mechanics with Frédéric François Chopin’s Fantaisie-Impromptu C♯ minor, Op. posth. 66, WN 46 composed in 1834 and first published posthumously in 1855. The very principles of these analogies are useful, however, the comparison with Chopin’s Fantasie-Impromptu is exceedingly simple and basic. The main factor of the utter simplicity of this comparison is that from contemporary composers’ point of view Chopin’s music is utterly ‘Newtonian’ in motion and mechanics and ‘Euclidean’ in terms of space. Using the same principle as S. Gubser used, far greater poetic similarity can be found providing comparison of quantum mechanics and contemporary music, for instance, taking complex rhythmic structures in études for piano by Gyorgy Ligeti.