The Ancients Said the Planets Sing

Discuss the world of the Greeks, Romans, Babylonians, and Egyptians.
Post Reply
theeternaliam
Posts: 61
Joined: Fri Aug 30, 2019 6:33 am

Re: The Ancients Said the Planets Sing

Post by theeternaliam »

The late great jazz musician, sun ra, tried telling everybody this. Not only this, but that the entire cosmos is a symphony, including ourselves.

Maybe some wouldn't consider this "classical" yet, but it's been over 25 years, so in some peoples terms it's a classic:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7iAQCPmpS ... verified=1
Secret Alias
Posts: 18362
Joined: Sun Apr 19, 2015 8:47 am

Re: The Ancients Said the Planets Sing

Post by Secret Alias »

It's after the end of the world, don't you know ...
User avatar
Leucius Charinus
Posts: 2817
Joined: Fri Oct 04, 2013 4:23 pm
Location: memoriae damnatio

Re: The Ancients Said the Planets Sing

Post by Leucius Charinus »

The Harmony of the Spheres

From the writings of Aristotle [DeCaelo - 290b,12ff] ...

"It seems to some [ie: Pythagoreans] that bodies so great must inevitably produce a sound by their movement: even bodies on earth do so, although they are neither so great in bulk nor moving at so high a speed, and as for the sun and moon, and the stars, it is incredible that they should fail to produce a noise of surpassing loudness. Taking this as their hypothesis, and also that the speeds of the stars, judged by their distances, are in the ratio of the musical consonances, they affirm that the sound of the stars as they revolve is concordant.

To meet this difficulty that none of us is aware of this sound, they account for it by saying that the sound is with us right from birth and has thus no contrasting silence to show it up; for voice and silence are perceived by contrast to each other, and so all mankind is undergoing an experience like that of a coppersmith, who becomes by long habit indifferent to the din around him."

"A History of Greek Philosophy", Volume I: The Earlier PreSocratics and the Pythagoreans
- by W.K.C. GUTHRIE (Published 1962) .

Post Reply