From Mick O'Neil:

The Radio 4 show "In Our Time" today is about THE MUSIC OF THE SPHERES

You can listen live to a 30 minute version on Radio 4 at 9:30pm today Thursday:92.4-94.6 MHz FM, 198 kHz AM
Or listen to the full 45 minute show anytime now at

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/ino ... time.shtml

although after a week you would have to look in the archives.

Mick


THE MUSIC OF THE SPHERES with Angela Voss, Melvyn Bragg, Peter Forshaw & Jim Bennett

In Shakespeare?s The Merchant of Venice the young Lorenzo woos his sweetheart with talk of the stars:

?There?s not the smallest orb which thou behold?st
But in his motion like an angel sings,
Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins;
Such harmony is in immortal souls;
But whilst this muddy vesture of decay
Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it.?

This is the music of the spheres - the idea that the stars and planets as they travel through space make beautiful music together.

The music of the spheres played out of the classical world, through the medieval period and into the Renaissance. It affords us a
glimpse into minds for whom the universe was full of meaning, of strange correspondences and grand harmonies.

Contributors

Peter Forshaw, Postdoctoral Fellow at Birkbeck, University of London

Jim Bennett, Director of the Museum of the History of Science at the University of Oxford

Angela Voss, Director of the Cultural Study of Cosmology and Divination at the University of Kent, Canterbury