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The Music of the Spheres: Music, Science and The Natural Order of The Universe
Jamie James
A graceful intellectual history of one of the West's most seductive ideas — that the universe is, at bottom, harmonic. Jamie James, an art and music critic, traces the doctrine of cosmic music from Pythagoras and Plato through Boethius, Kepler, and Newton, then into the actual music of Bach and Beethoven, and finally to its dissolution under Romanticism and modern science. It reads as a smooth, engaging narrative rather than a technical treatise — no math or musical training required — and while specialists may find it broad-brush, that sweep is the point: it connects dots most histories keep apart, and treats a discarded worldview with sympathy rather than a smirk. For anyone drawn to where music, cosmology, and philosophy meet, it's a pleasure.
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The author
Jamie James is an American writer and critic who has written widely on art, music and culture, including a long stint as art critic for The Wall Street Journal. He specializes in accessible intellectual history, and The Music of the Spheres is his synthesis of a vast, scattered subject.
The book
The book traces the ancient doctrine that the universe is fundamentally harmonic — the musica mundana of the spheres, the musica humana of the body, and ordinary musica instrumentalis — from Pythagoras and Plato through Boethius, Kepler and Newton. It then follows the idea into the music of Bach and Beethoven and charts its dissolution under Romanticism and modern science.
How it reads
As a smooth, engaging narrative rather than a technical treatise; no musical or mathematical training is required. Specialists may find it broad-brush, but that breadth is the point — it connects dots most histories keep separate, and it treats a discarded worldview with sympathy rather than condescension.
For more context
Readers drawn to the cosmological side might follow up with studies of Kepler's Harmonices Mundi and the Pythagorean tradition.
Sources
- Type
- Book
- Author / Maker
- Jamie James
- ISBN
- None
- Shelf
- Music
- Location
- Colorado