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Sto caricando le informazioni... The Music of the Spheres: Music, Science, and the Natural Order of the Universedi Jamie James
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Iscriviti per consentire a LibraryThing di scoprire se ti piacerà questo libro. Attualmente non vi sono conversazioni su questo libro. Born and raised in Texas, educated at Williams College, Jamie James worked as a freelance writer in New York for more than twenty years, with regular posts as critic at The New Yorker and The Times of London. In 1999 he moved to Indonesia to concentrate on writing books. He is the author of fiction, biography, and long-form criticism. He and his partner own and operate two restaurants in Seminyak, Bali. nessuna recensione | aggiungi una recensione
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. Non sono state trovate descrizioni di biblioteche |
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Google Books — Sto caricando le informazioni... GeneriSistema Decimale Melvil (DDC)780.05The arts Music Music Relation of music to other topicsClassificazione LCVotoMedia:
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In general, there is much in common among all creative endeavors. As physicist Richard Feynman opined, artistic works and scientific works both reveal truth; just in a different way. (Indeed, Feynman was an avid bongo player; there are still videos available on YouTube showing him playing.)
The author of this book, Jamie James, traces this correspondence in Western intellectual life beginning with the ancient Greeks. He writes that everything in the universe was seen as a reflection of the essential perfection fo the universe and its harmonies. James posits “the ancient tradition of the musical cosmos, embracing and unifying noble rationalism and ecstatic mysticism, has survived.” He further contents that “What we may call the great theme - the belief that the cosmos is a sublimely harmonious system guided by a Supreme Intelligence . . . runs throughout Western civilization.” He then sets out to present “an anecdotal history of the symphony of science and its counterpoint, the wisdom of music, traced across the centuries from its inception up to the most bewildering period faced by any historian - the present.”
Following his introduction the chapters are:
Pythagoras, the Master
Plato and the World Soul
“The Key to the Universe”
The Renaissance Musici
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
Evaluation: This book indeed seems “anecdotal,” just as the author allows, includes a lot of fuzzy concepts, and only tackles a limited area of the globe and its history. But if approached with an awareness of its limitations, it has some interesting information to convey. ( )