The Essay: Music of the Spheres

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The Essay: Music of the Spheres: The Sound of the Moon

Music of the Spheres

The Sound of the Moon

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Can you resist the music of the sirens? Dr Stuart Clark continues his cosmic journey.

Could the wonders of the universe be explained through harmony? With the help of original music, Dr Stuart Clark continues his exploration of the first theory of everything.

Could the wonders of the universe and nature of creation be explained through music? The music of the spheres was a serious intellectual idea that applied music theory to the search for underlying order in the natural world. 

Conceived in the 6th century BC, the concept survived for centuries, influencing poets and playwrights, including Shakespeare and Milton, and artists such as Botticelli. It culminated in the 17th century when German astronomer Kepler used the music of the cosmos to give birth to modern astrophysics.

In these five essays, astronomer and award-winning science writer Dr Stuart Clark argues that the concept of harmony – still so prevalent in art – continues to underpin science as well.

Episodes feature original music, composed and performed by Carollyn Eden, to underscore the ideas being discussed. We hear Pythagoras’s scale for the nature of the night sky, the different medieval church modes associated with the cosmos and music based on the intervals that Kepler calculated for the planets – which still hold true today.

In his second essay, Stuart begins on the battlefield where warrior Er has been shown the true arrangement of the heavens. A siren sits on the orbit of each planet singing a single pure note, which blends together into a glorious cosmic harmony. In the Manual of Harmonics, Nicomachus assigns notes to the planets but it doesn’t turn out quite how he expects. 

While it’s easy to dismiss the music of the spheres as guesswork, today’s theory that mysterious dark matter holds the universe together might appear just as far-fetched.

This series of essays is produced by Richard Hollingham and is a Boffin Media production for BBC Radio 3.

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Stuart Clark argues that the idea of harmony continues to underpin both science and art.

Astronomer and award-winning science writer Dr Stuart Clark argues that the concept of harmony - still so prevalent in art - continues to underpin science as well.

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