PSI - Issue 26

Jesús Toribio et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 26 (2020) 348–353 Toribio / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2019) 000 – 000

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5. A tribute to Victor Vasarely, Maurits Cornelis Escher and Johann Sebastian Bach On the basis of the hierarchical microstructure of cold drawn pearlitic steels (two levels of colonies and lamellae), a link can be established between pearlite and the multi-scale ( multi-level or multi-layer ) structure of the painting by Victor Vasarely (Fig. 7a resembling colonies) and by Maurits Cornelis Escher (Fig. 7b resembling alternate ferrite and cementite) and the hierarchical structure of the music by Johann Sebastian Bach (Fig. 8). One excellent example of the latter is the Christmas Oratorio composed by six Cantatas (macro-structure), each of them with its own micro structure (consisting of contrasting sections of recitatives, arias and choruses). Fig. 8 shows the portrait of Johann Sebastian Bach and some early bars of the Fugue No 1 in C Major BWV 846 of The Well-Tempered Clavier (Book I). The (macro-) structure of the fugue contains (micro-) structure of thematic sections ( subject and counter-subject ) and connecting passages ( episodes or divertimenti ), i.e., it is clearly a beautiful hierarchical structure like that appearing in cold drawn pearlitic steel wires.

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Fig. 7. Sin Hat 33 by Victor Vasarely (a); Day and night by Maurits Cornelis Escher (b).

Fig. 8. Johann Sebastian Bach with the canon triplex (portrait by Elias Gottlob Haussmann), and bars of the Fugue No 1 in C Major BWV 846 of The Well-Tempered Clavier (Book I).