Kepler
Op. 79 : "Kepler - Harmonies of the World".
Kepler was a German astronomer (1571 - 1630) who succeeded Tyco Brahe at his observatory near Prague. He used Brahe's observations (compiled over many years) to calculate the elliptical orbits of the planets around the sun. His calculations were used by Newton years later to formulate his theory of gravitation.
In his book "Harmonies of the World", Kepler postulated that the orbits of the 7 planets (including Earth and its moon) actually create a heavenly music, which he detailed (in terms of vocal ranges).
I had seen this reference some decades ago, and at this time decided go try and use his data to create my own version of his "music of the spheres".
I used a 7-part choir (SSAATBB) and 3 string sections (Violin 1, Viola, Cello) for my piece. The vocal lines have no words.
The reference to Kepler's book is:
Great Books of the Western World, Second Edition 1990, Second Printing 1991, Volume 15 Ptolemy - Copernicus - Kepler, The Harmonies of the World Book 5, page 1039.
The 7 vocal lines, and their ranges, are:
Soprano 1 (Mercury) - middle C to E on top space of treble clef
Soprano 2 (Moon) - G to C on treble clef
Alto 1 (Earth) - G and Ab on treble clef
Alto 2 (Venus) - E on bottom line of treble clef
Tenor (Mars) - F on bass clef to middle C (with Bb)
Bass 1 (Saturn) - G to B (natural) at bottom of bass clef
Bass 2 (Jupiter) - G to Bb at bottom of bass clef
The challenge here was to stick to the designated vocal ranges - not easy to do!
The 3 string lines provide some harmonic variation from the above vocal ranges.
Files are accessible below.
Kepler - Harmonies of the World (Op. 79)