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

Copernicus, 1993. — 292 p. — ISBN 978-0387944746.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.The Great Theme
Pythagoras, the Master
Plato and the World Soul
“The Key to the Universe”
The Renaissance Musicz
The Music of the Spheres and the Birth of the Opera
The Hermetic Tradition
Kepler Pythagorizes
Newton and The Magic Flute
The Romantic Anomaly
Schoenberg and the Revival of the Great Theme
Into the Future