The Music of the Spheres

In Our Time

BBC

History

4.6 • 9.2K Ratings

🗓️ 19 June 2008

⏱️ 42 minutes

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Summary

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the music of the spheres, the elegant and poetic idea that the revolution of the planets generates a celestial harmony of profound and transcendent beauty. In Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice the young Lorenzo woos his sweetheart with talk of the stars: “There’s not the smallest orb which thou behold’stBut in his motion like an angel sings,Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins;Such harmony is in immortal souls;But whilst this muddy vesture of decayDoth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it.”The idea of music of the spheres ran through late antiquity and the medieval period into the Renaissance and its echoes could be heard in astrology and astronomy, in theology, and, of course, in music itself. Influenced by Pythagoras and Plato, it was discussed by Cicero, Boethius, Marcello Ficino and Johannes Kepler It affords us a glimpse into minds for which the universe was full of meaning, of strange correspondences and grand harmonies.With Peter Forshaw, Postdoctoral Fellow at Birkbeck, University of London; Jim Bennett, Director of the Museum of the History of Science at the University of Oxford and Angela Voss, Director of the Cultural Study of Cosmology and Divination at the University of Kent, Canterbury.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Thanks for down learning the In Our Time podcast. For more details about In Our Time and for our terms of use, please go to BBC.co.uk.
0:09.0	I hope you enjoy the program.
0:12.0	Hello, in Shakespeare's the Merchant of Venice, the young Lorenzo wooes his sweetheart
0:16.8	with talk of the stars. There's not the smallest orb which thou behold's but in his motion
0:22.4	like an angel sings, still quiring to the young-eyed
0:26.3	cherubins.
0:28.0	Such harmony is in immortal souls.
0:31.0	This is the music of the spheres, the idea that the stars and planets as they travel through space make beautiful music together.
0:38.0	The music of the spheres played out of the ancient classical world through the medieval period and into the Renaissance.
0:44.0	It affords us a glimpse into minds for whom the universe was full of meaning of strange
0:48.3	correspondences and grand harmonies.
0:50.9	With me to discuss the music of the spheres, a Jim Bennett, director of the Museum of the History
0:55.7	of Science at the University of Oxford, Peter Forshaw, a postdoctoral fellow at Birkbeck University
1:01.1	of London, and Angela V Boss, director of the Cultural
1:04.0	Study of Cosmology and Divination at the University of Kent Canterbury.
1:07.6	Peter Forshaw, the starting point for all this is the Greek philosopher Pythagoras
1:11.6	in the 6th century BC who spotted a relationship
1:14.6	between mathematics and music. Can you explain how he is said to have arrived at that?
1:19.7	Yeah, the story goes that Pythagoras one day was wondering how he could discover something useful for, already something existed, the straight age existed for the eye.
1:37.6	He wanted to discover some sort of instrument that was
1:44.0	walking past a blacksmith's shop or a smithy and he heard the clanging of hammers on the anvil.
1:50.0	Suddenly he realized, ah, the gods have given me a clue. He went inside, listen to the hammers, and
	...

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