The Music of the Spheres: Music, Science, and the Natural Order of the Universe

Front Cover
Springer Science & Business Media, 1995 - Music - 264 pages
For centuries, scientists and philosophers believed that the universe was a stately, ordered mechanism, both mathematical and musical. The perceived distances between objects in the sky mirrored (and were mirrored by) the spaces between notes forming chords and scales. The smooth operation of the cosmos created a divine harmony that composers sought to capture and express. Jamie James allows readers to see how this scientific philosophy emerged, how it was shattered by changing views of the universe and the rise of Romanticism, and to what extent it survives today - if at all. From Pythagoras to Newton, Bach to Beethoven, and on to the twentieth century of Einstein, Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Cage and Glass. A spellbinding examination of the interwoven fates of science and music throughout history.

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Contents

The Great Theme
3
Pythagoras the Master
20
Plato and the World Soul
41
The Key to the Universe
60
The Renaissance Musici
79
The Music of the Spheres and the Birth of the Opera
98
The Hermetic Tradition
114
Kepler Pythagorizes
140
Newton and The Magic Flute
159
The Romantic Anomaly
180
Schoenberg and the Revival of the Great Theme
212
Into the Future
229
Bibliography
243
Index
249
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