Inspiration Today: Music, Astronomy, and Popular Culture

摘要

We explore a variety of examples of music inspired by serious astronomy (as opposed to simply an astronomical title or quick allusion to spooning in June to the light of the Moon). The examples are drawn from my recently published catalog of 133 such pieces, including both classical and popular genres of music. We discuss operas based on the life and work of astronomers, six songs based on a reasonable understanding of the properties of black holes, constellation pieces written by composers from around the world who are or were active amateur astronomers, the song that compares walking on the Moon to being in love, the little-known rock song that became a reference in the Astrophysical Journal, pieces that base the patterns of the music on the rhythms of astronomical phenomena, and a number of others.