Beyond the Atom (2020): composing music that creatively captures the elusive nature of quantum physics

Abstract

Beyond the Atom is a work for large chamber ensemble that explores the intersection of quantum physics and the Rumsfeldian philosophy of ‘known knowns’, ‘known unknowns’ and ‘unknown unknowns’. This work, initially performed by the Royal Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra and subsequently by the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra, won the inaugural South African Composers’ Competition in 2023. This explication shows how the work uses musical mechanisms to create expressive links with the mathematical phenomena of five distinct subatomic particles, and how these mechanisms portray a broader sense of known and unknown environments that exist in the ever-changing field of quantum physics.