Scientist, Music ver. - 6th, "Pythagoras ; Music of Celestial Sphere"

 

 

Hello, this is DJ, Mi-hyun.
Now warm spring is gone
and it's just about to start the summer days.
I can feel the summer already, how about you?
Do you find any difficulties in the change of the summer day's weather?

 

This time, I'm going to talk about the person,
 who lived in much more earlier than Galilei.

It had started from the human's  observation of stars in the sky.
As they wrote their story with letters, observed the nature,
and developed the civilization,
there had been many huge changes in so-called, "Science."

Most of the very first form of the science is about the recording
and writing of nature that people observed.
Astronomy was also born this way, as they had observed Sun and Moon,
and thousands of stars in the sky.

 

This time, I'm going to talk about the father of the Astronomy.
In about BC 560, there was a man whose name was Pythagoras in Ancient Greece.

At that time of ancient people worked in the large range of field.
 "He" was also worked as a mathematician, astronomer, politician,
and philosopher at the same time,

I remember Pythagoras as a mathematician like many people do it in common.
But he found a school mixed with religion and the study.
He organized a scholar which was concerned with immortal of spirit,
eternal cycle of birth and after death of life.
 

For him and his school, the study purpose of mathematical, music, astronomy
and medical was the subsidiary to persue didactics.
So in his theory, reason and mystery exist.

He regarded number as the first principal of all things,
and tried to explain the reality with it.
For instance, he regard men as the odd number and women for even number.
Thus, if you add three, which represented men and two which represented women,
then you would get five, which meant marriage.

For him, regular movement of Sun and Moon,
Changes in orbit of constellation and shapes of Moon including every movement or
 changes which could be observed in the sky was all about mathematical things.
Also he expanded his ideas to the theory,
"Those things are the closest things to the God.

 

In addition, Pythagoras's school was strongly prone to stress the harmony.
Therefore, under his belief, scholars hypothesized that sky
and whole universe was composed of harmony by God's order.

 

He was the first person who explained numbers
involved with between astronomy and ratio.
He carefully observed smith's hitting of metals' sound
and took notices on between the music and ratio.
Through this idea, he insisted that sound pitch was divided by mathematical ratios.
He also proved the relations between octave and ratios,
and found perfect fifth by dividing the sound pitch as 2:3 ratio.
It is the "Pythagorean Scale."
He drew "Horoscope"by changing the spot of stars
and movement into sound and vibration.
He called it "music of heaven" or "music of harmony and chord",
Which leaded to the basis of acoustics to the posterity.

 

 

His theory of universe was from the idea of "The Earth is round"
not from the idea of "The Earth is flat."
Furthermore, he insisted heliocentric theory instead of geocentric theory.
Also he and his scholars thought ten is a perfect number.
(because it is composed of the adding 1+2+3+4)
With this theory, he regarded stars in the sky is perfect
by composing of stars (Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Mercury and Venus)
and planets (Sun, Moon, Earth).

Those were at the center of the universe rotating the "Center Fire,"
which meant some sort of the substance of creativity.
The reason why people couldn't see the "Center Fire" was that
human beings lived in only hemispherical side.
That hemispherical side just always rotated not toward it.
The Sun, like glasses, reflects the Center Fire,
and the heat reflected through this to the Earth, made light and heat
and he thought that's why the Moon shines because of the Sun.

Though many weak points of universe,
the Earth rounds in the center of it, and so dose planets.
The the idea of Earth, including the whole planets are round have influenced
to the people who lived next generations.

Pythagoras's theory of music, in later years, became "Neoplatonism,"
influencing to Gallies,  Kepler, Copernicus.

 

In ancient Greece, music was regarded as meristic notion of physical activities.
Every activities done under by Goddess, Muse represented art and science.

We know Muse as the Goddess in common idea,
but actually, Muse represents
astronomy, lyric poetry, comedy, tragedy, dance and also epic, too.
People at that time started to think music of order and lyric under reason's control
not the only emotional aspect of lyric, rhythm and melody.
It means that generation was the age of reason's era.

At the stream in that era, Pythagoras tried to analyze music
with the mathematical and rational ideas in the aspect of harmony.

Though he intented to do this, he had also logics and belief of God.
So I can say he was like "Alchemy"

Pythagoras argued that the when the stars in the sky moves,
they make beautiful sound and harmony,
and the speed of rotation can be vary owing to the distance of universe.
And related to the speed, the high and low pitched sound can be generated,
friction can be changed to the harmony.
And through all these process by God,
the universe can be full of beautiful sound of music.

He said that the most similar sound of ground could harp.
In some what extent,
 I think he thought the Earth as the bead in the marvellous orgel.

For he was the person who lived more than thousands of years ago,
I guess he wanted to talk about
human beings' destiny and  weakness before the God.

Now it's time to recommend the some songs.

As he said, I think it would be the music of heaven.
Why don't you listen to music
imagining the whole heaven, and universe and etc?

 

 

Andy McKee - Into The Ocean - Harp cover by Amy Turk

 

 

 

Carolan's Dream - played on celtic harp

 

 

Josh Layne performs Grandjany's cadenza-Handel Harp Concerto