Cosmophonia

From the alien dolphins in "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" (so long and thanks for all the fish) to the whale on the cover of the They Might be Giants album "Apollo 18," there are numerous examples of cosmic-dwelling cetaceans in science fiction and other space imaginings. Even more interestingly, these space whales' cosmic nature is often tied to their musical nature. In this episode, we ponder why this may be, and touch on som...

On Monday, April 8, a total solar eclipse will sweep across much of North America, within view of millions of people. Most excitingly, the path of totality is coming by Bloomington, Indiana, current home of Cosmophonia! Your hosts have been involved in several music-space events in town, including our very own recital, where we have programmed a number of excellent on-topic pieces. The piece we discuss on this episode is the prover...

Probably the most well-known piece of space themed classical music is Gustav Holst's The Planets. In this episode, we focus on the last movement of the suite, "Neptune," discussing how the timbre and harmony create its signature icy, watery,  mysterious soundscape. The suite was completed in 1918, but while selected movements were performed several times in the following years, it did not receive its full premiere with the "Neptune...

In this new series, Uncharted Cosmophony, we choose a random, previously unknown to us album that seems to have some spacey elements, listen to it, and then talk about it. This time we chose the 1973 record "Intergalactic Trot" by Stardrive with Robert Mason. The album prominently shows off the capabilities of an early multi-voiced synthesizer, backed by a full band, but unlike ambient "space" music is energetic and driven. Our con...

Sonification is when scientific data is "visualized" or communicated through non-verbal sound. In this episode we discuss the affordances (and some cautions) of sonification in science and science communication as well as in musical compositions. The practice of sonification, especially of astronomical data, brings together aesthetic and objective representations of the universe in a way that can be seen as hearkening back to the t...

On this Halloween special, we discuss the music and sound design in Ridley Scott's movie "Alien." Blending science fiction and horror aesthetics, the film relies quite a bit on musical cues and jarring juxtapositions of sound environments to create a tense and unsettling atmosphere. 

References

Jerry Goldsmith, Soundtrack for "Alien"

Toru Takemitsu, Flock Descends on a Pentagonal Garden

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Eine Kleine Nachtm...

What connects Dante's 14th century Paradiso, an early 20th century science fiction novel, and a 13-minute "symphony" for concert band written in the 1980s? It may be surprising but the answer is that they all involve a story where a human travels to Mars and finds it not harsh and warlike but beautiful and awe-inspiring. Like Dante and C. S. Lewis, composer Alan Hovhaness found an incredible source of spiritual inspiration from out...

On this Super Blue Moon, we discuss the superstar tune "Blue Moon." We begin our conversation assessing the contested definition of an astronomical "blue moon," finding surprising parallels with the human-centered vision of the moon that the song exhibits. We then delve into the muddy and fraught history of how the song emerged into the public consciousness and marvel at is ability to remain universally appealing, appearing fresh a...

For proof that the ideas of the Quadrivium continue to resonate in modern culture, we need not look further than Sir Paul McCartney. By pure coincidence, we happened to fall in love with the song "The Kiss of Venus" from his 2020 self-titled album, and decide to do an episode based partly on the book "A Little Book of Coincidence" around the same time, not realizing that said song was inspired by said book! After making the connect...

The idea that music and the cosmos are intrinsically connected has very deep roots in many human cultures. In Western cultures, one of the most long-lasting ways that this relationship manifest was in the Quadrivium. These four "number arts" were the ancestors of modern sciences and consisted of arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. Learning how number and numerical relationships worked across these disciplines allowed educat...

Musician and film star Janelle Monáe began her catapult to fame with her five suite and three album "Metropolis" series, which builds a wonderfully rich futuristic universe, chock full of references that situate it within the traditions of science fiction, Afrofuturism, and music of all genres. In this episode, we focus on the first iteration of this series, the 2007 E.P. "Metropolis: The Chase Suite." This E.P. introduces the main...

The gorgeous and strange first movement of Beethoven's piano sonata Op. 27 No. 2 is one of the most popular piano pieces of all time, but there are many secrets that lie below its placid surface. We discuss some of the ways that the piece evokes moonlight and nocturnal landscapes.

References

The recording we used was played by Malcolm Bilson from "The Complete Piano Sonatas Played on Historical Instruments"

Sarah Waltz, "In Defense...

What is a more iconic space art than Star Trek? As both Meredith and Gabe are Star Trek nerds, we thought it a fitting beginning to our frontier into this podcast series. While of course music is omnipresent in the franchise in underscoring and even musical-themed episodes, we focus for now on the theme songs, discussing how they are put together and what they reflect about the themes and ideas of The Original Series, Deep Space Ni...