The Harmony of the Spheres

Author: Joscelyn Godwin
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1620550962
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 348

Book Description
Professor of Music at Colgate University and a widely respected musicologist, Godwin traces the history of the idea, held since ancient times, that the whole cosmos, with its circling planets and stars, is in some way a musical or harmonious entity. The author shows how this concept has continued to inspire philosophers, astronomers, and mystics from antiquity to the present day.

The Harmony of the World

Author: Johannes Kepler
Publisher: American Philosophical Society
ISBN: 9780871692092
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 618

Book Description
The authors have presented and interpreted Johannes Kepler's Latin text to English readers by putting it into the kind of clear but earnest language they suppose Kepler would have used if he had been writing today.

Signature of the Celestial Spheres

Author: Hartmut Warm
Publisher: Rudolf Steiner Press
ISBN: 1855842351
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 416

Book Description
Is the solar system ordered? Or is it simply the result of random and chaotic accidents? This book takes the reader on a compelling and powerful journey of discovery, revealing the celestial spheres in their astonishingly complex patterns. Movements of the planets are found to correspond accurately with simple geometric figures and musical intervals, pointing to an exciting new perspective on the ancient idea of the "harmony of the spheres." Hartmut Warm's detailed presentation incorporates the distances, velocities, and periods of conjunction of the planets, as well as the rotations of the Sun, Moon, and Venus. Numerous graphics--including color plates--illustrate the extraordinary beauty of geometrical forms that result when the movements of several planets are viewed in relation to one another. Moreover, the author describes and analyzes concepts of the "music of the spheres," with special emphasis on Kepler's revolutionary ideas. The book also discusses current scientific beliefs about the origin of the universe and the solar system, enabling the reader to understand fully how this remarkable research supplements contemporary materialistic views of the cosmos. The appendix includes his mathematical and astronomical methods of calculation, as well as a detailed discussion of their accuracy and validity based on modern astronomical algorithms.

The Music of the Spheres

Author: Jamie James
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9780387944746
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 292

Book Description
For centuries, scientists and philosophers believed the universe was a stately; ordered mechanism - mathematical and musical. The smooth operation of the cosmos created a divine harmony (perfect, spiritual, eternal) which composers sought to capture and express. With The Music of the Spheres, readers will 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 (if at all) it survives today. From Pythagoras to Newton, Bach to Beethoven, and on into the twentieth century, it is a spellbinding examination of the interwoven fates of science and music throughout history.

Sing Aloud Harmonious Spheres

Author: Jacomien Prins
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351664182
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 496

Book Description
This is the first volume to explore the reception of the Pythagorean doctrine of cosmic harmony within a variety of contexts, ranging chronologically from Plato to 18th-century England. This original collection of essays engages with contemporary debates concerning the relationship between music, philosophy, and science, and challenges the view that Renaissance discussions on cosmic harmony are either mere repetitions of ancient music theory or pre-figurations of the ‘Scientific Revolution’. Utilizing this interdisciplinary approach, Renaissance Conceptions of Cosmic Harmony offers a new perspective on the reception of an important classical theme in various cultural, sequential and geographical contexts, underlying the continuities and changes between Antiquity, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. This project will be of particular interest within these emerging disciplines as they continue to explore the ideological significance of the various ways in which we appropriate the past.

Plato’s Timaeus and the Missing Fourth Guest

Author: Donna M. Altimari Adler
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 900438992X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 654

Book Description
In Plato's Timaeus and the Missing Fourth Guest, Donna M. Altimari Adler proposes a new Timaeus scale structure. She finds the harmonic cosmos, mathematically, at 35 A-36 D, regarding the text as a number generator. Plato's primary number sequence, she argues, yields a matrix defining a sophisticated harmony of the spheres. She stresses the Decad as the pattern governing both human perception and the generation of all things, in the Timaeus, including the World Soul and musical scale symbolizing it. She precisely identifies Plato's "fabric" and its locus of severance and solves other thorny problems of textual interpretation.

History of the Planetary Systems from Thales to Kepler

Author: John Louis Emil Dreyer
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Astronomy
Languages : en
Pages : 446

Book Description

Composing the World

Author: Andrew James Hicks
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190658207
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 345

Book Description
Taking in hand the current "discovery" that we can listen to the cosmos, Andrew Hicks argues that sound-and the harmonious coordination of sounds, sources, and listeners-has always been an integral part of the history of studying the cosmos. In Composing the World, Hicks presents a narrative tour through medieval Platonic cosmology with reflections on important philosophical movements along the way. The book will resonate with a variety of readers, and it encourages us to rethink the role of music and sound within our greater understanding of the universe.

The Sleepwalkers

Author: Arthur Koestler
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 0141394544
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 592

Book Description
Arthur Koestler's extraordinary history of humanity's changing vision of the universe In this masterly synthesis, Arthur Koestler cuts through the sterile distinction between 'sciences' and 'humanities' to bring to life the whole history of cosmology from the Babylonians to Newton. He shows how the tragic split between science and religion arose and how, in particular, the modern world-view replaced the medieval world-view in the scientific revolution of the seventeenth century. He also provides vivid and judicious pen-portraits of a string of great scientists and makes clear the role that political bias and unconscious prejudice played in their creativity.

The Harmonies of the World

Author: Johannes Kepler
Publisher: Legare Street Press
ISBN: 9781015402027
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.