BRIAN CIACH
"The Einstein Slide" 2012
Winner of the 2017/2018 American Prize
1121 - 1110 - 2Perc - Pno - Str
8´
Work introduction
The Einstein Slide is a short chamber concerto inspired by a medical slide of Albert Einstein's brain on display at the Mütter museum in Philadelphia. Einstein's brain is remarkably youthful for a man aged 76. To reflect this, the music is ever inspired and brilliant, undergoing constant shifts and a childlike exploration of material.
Einstein's brain was lacking a complete Sylvian fissure, a type of wall separating the parts of the brain responsible for mathematical ability, spatial reasoning and three-dimensional visualization. Some argue that the synergy of these diverse segments in Einstein's brain allowed him to think differently. The Einstein Slide evokes brain activity by swiftly shifting through different musical ideas. In my musical search for all things Einstein, the movement begins with a violin
solo, an instrument that Einstein played. There is also the "musical equation" toward the middle of the movement, which is a
musical representation of a mathematical formula in the form of a puzzle canon.