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Photo by NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team, via Slate.com

The history of music features a surprising number of pieces that have various references to stars, planets, and outer space. Here's some of our favorite classical pieces that by way of their composition or themes invoke the awe and beauty of the cosmos.

Franz Joseph Haydn (March 31, 1732 – May 31,1809)

 Il Mondo della luna (The World on the Moon)

The history of Il Mondo della luna and its tale of marital misadventure predates Haydn’s famous adaptation. The libretto was first written by Carlo Goldoni in 1750 and had been previously set to music by six other composers. The story is typical of a particular kind of opera called opera buffa It is the story of a rich old fool, Buonafede (“good faith”), who is opposed to his two daughters and their maid marrying three men who, as it turns out, are not so well off. One of the boyfriends happens to be a charlatan astrologer who comes up with a scheme. He drugs Buonafede and pretends to transport him to the moon, where he ultimately dupes him into agreeing to the proposed marriages. The girls are eventually married to their true loves before Buonafede realizes what’s happened. Wedding hymns are sung in a "Lunatic" tongue. 

 

William Herschel (November, 1738 – August, 1822)

Symphony No. 8 

William Herschel’s scientific accomplishments are well known in the history of astronomy, but it’s worth noting that this German-born British astronomer who discovered the planet Uranus was also an accomplished musician and composer who lived about the same time as Joseph Haydn. He played several instruments including – like his father - the oboe, the violin, harpsichord, and later, organ. He wrote quite a bit of music including twenty four symphonies, a variety of concertos, and some church music for good measure. About a half dozen of his symphonies were recorded back in the early 2000’s. His eighth symphony, while most certainly rooted in the traditions of the classical era, features ethereal orchestration and melodic lines indicative of the lonely, star-covered night sky. 

 

A Hymn to the Moon?

Ludwig van Beethoven (December 17, 1770 – March 26, 1827)

Moonlight Sonata

Claude Debussy (August 22 1862 – March 25 1918)

Claire de Lune

One of the most common astronomical subjects drawn upon for inspiration throughout musical history has been the moon. The idea of a hymn, or song, to the moon probably goes back to the earliest music making there ever was, perhaps invocative of an ancient scene somewhere in the plains of Africa involving a drum or a bow and some kind of vocalization. The 19thcentury in particular saw so many works with the theme of lunar appreciation that it became a kind of literary and musical trope. Among some of the most well-known examples of this kind of moon-inspired music is Ludwig van Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor, colloquially known as the Moonlight Sonata.

Another popular example of this theme can be found in the music of early 20th Century impressionist composer Claude Debussy with the third movement of his Suite Bergamasque, Claire de Lune.

 

Gustav Holst (September 21 1874 – May 25 1934)

The Planets

Between 1914 and 1916 Gustav Holst –a British composer–wrote a seven movement work for orchestra called The Planets which is a favorite on orchestral and radio programs around the world. The suite features seven movements for each of the planets featured in the ancient astrological solar system, which is why it doesn’t include music for Earth. The beginning of Holst’s suite may sound pretty familiar to fans of the Star Wars whose music was composed by John Williams and highly influenced by Holst. 

 

Olivier Messiaen (December 10, 1908 – April 27, 1992)

From the Canyons to the Stars

In the early 1970s, the French composer Olivier Messiaen was commissioned to write music in celebration of the upcoming American Bicentenary. While working on the piece, he found himself in Utah, where he visited Bryce Canyon and was inspired to write what became a twelve-movement tour de force for orchestra called From the Canyons to the Stars. Halfway through, in the sixth movement, he writes a horn call that was intended to reach outer space.

If it didn’t exactly reach that far, it certainly sounds like it hails from outer space…

 

John Cage (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992)

Etudes Australes

From around the same era as Messiaen’s pension for peculiarity comes a set of piano pieces by American composer John Cage.  John Cage is perhaps best-known for his 1952 composition 4’33” wherein a musician (typically a pianist) walks out on the stage and proceeds to sit in silence for four minutes and thirty-three seconds. He also wrote a set of thirty-two pieces for piano which use star charts as their source material. They were called Etudes Australes.   

Interestingly, this was not the first time Cage used star charts as source material. About ten years before he had written a piece for orchestra called Atlas Eclipticalis using the maps in Atlas Australis, an atlas of the southern sky by Antonín Bečvář.

 

More Info

For more crossover material on the subjects of outer space and music, you can read WQXR's list on their favorite space-themed composers, The New York Timesarticle on the literal sound of space, and  even a Reddit thread on sky/space-themed classical music.

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