The WNYC program/podcast “Radiolab” recently featured a consideration of physicist Richard Feynman’s question "If - in some cataclysm - all of scientific knowledge were to be destroyed and only one sentence was passed on to the next generation of creatures, what statement would contain the most information in the fewest words?" As is Radiolab's wont to do - the episode traveled down various rabbit holes on the topic with various thinkers - writers, artists, historians, and futurists. (You can hear the episode here.) The episode's closing features a brief conversation with composer and pianist Missy Mazzoli - who puts forward her idea of The Primordial Chord. Her Primordial Chord - a collection of all 12 notes available in the Western musical scale - is meant to be played by three people on the piano (which provides eight octaves and sufficient space to accommodate the three musicians). Here is my take.

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