What do cauliflower, neural networks, and Moorish mosaics have in common? At first glance, not much. But upon closer inspection, striking parallels emerge: structures that repeat themselves on every level of observation appear everywhere. This also applies to music, as demonstrated in the latest Future Lecture at TU Hamburg. The title: “When Structures Quote Themselves – Fractals, Self-Organization, Self-Similarity, and Why Everything is Deeply Rooted in Music.”
The two speakers of the evening at Audimax II are experts in this field. Prof. Georg Hajdu is a composer and professor of multimedia composition at the Hamburg University of Music and Drama. In addition, he leads the interdisciplinary ligeti center – a home for research projects where arts and science, culture and technology as well as music and medicine come together.
His colleague, Dr. Simon Linke, is a lecturer in systematic musicology at the University of Hamburg and a research associate at the InnoLab of HAW Hamburg. In his talk, Linke emphasized how recurring patterns can be recognized at all levels in nature: “Self-similarity is a fundamental mechanism we find everywhere: I zoom in one level deeper, and it looks the same again. It is the same with music. For example, the basis of a string vibration is also a fractal phenomenon.” Music, Linke continued, always moves in the tension field between chaos and order, complexity and simplicity.
An Exceptional Space for Interdisciplinary Exchange
Like Linke, Prof. Georg Hajdu presented numerous musical examples in his lecture, including pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach and György Ligeti (1923–2006), after whom the ligeti center is named. But Hajdu – who is not only a composer but also a trained molecular biologist – went even further. He demonstrated how researchers and artists from very diverse fields deal with similar structures and patterns in their work – including the British mathematician Roger Penrose and the Dutch graphic artist M.C. Escher.
After the lectures, there was an opportunity for audience and speakers to exchange ideas over drinks. Prof. Irina Smirnova, Vice President for Research at TUHH: “The Future Lectures regularly bring together different perspectives on central future questions in science. Today’s lecture particularly highlighted how fruitful the interplay between science and art can be: new forms of expression and viewpoints emerge from collaboration. The ligeti center provides an exceptional space for interdisciplinary exchange. We are especially pleased that the ligeti center is based in Harburg and works closely with TU Hamburg.”
Content-wise, the event was the perfect prelude to the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC) organized by the ligeti center. From May 10 to 16, Hamburg-Harburg will become the international hub for computer-based music: Around 300 scientists, musicians, and developers from all over the world will come together for the ICMC. In addition to an extensive academic program, numerous concerts and events are also aimed at the general public.
More information about ICMC 2026: icmc2026.ligeti-zentrum.de
