In the final years of his life, the composer Johann Sebastian Bach wrote a complex, abstract, multimovement piece called Die Kunst der Fuge - or “The Art of Fugue.”

Beginning with an innocuously simple four-bar theme, in each variation Bach weaves patterns of greater and greater sophistication.

The complexity is inextricably linked to the idea of ‘permutations’: to arrange simple starting material in lots of different ways. We’ve all heard of the term ‘symmetry’ — usually in terms of things like mirrors or snowflakes. But it’s also an amazingly powerful way of thinking about ways of arranging things, including musical sounds.

In this live talk-performance, premiered at Brighton Science Festival in 2017, the Florian Ensemble delve into this idea of transformation, showing how it is not only an analytical tool or familiar primary school demonstration, but is deeply entwined with human creativity. They investigate how the idea of tonal music depends on a fundamental asymmetry, and explore some of the ways in which Bach exploited this concept with unrivalled sophistication and emotional depth.