The Music of the Heavens (ebook)

Argumento de The Music of the Heavens (ebook)

Valued today for its development of the third law of planetary motion, Harmonice mundi (1619) was intended by Kepler to expand on ancient efforts to discern a Creator's plan for the planetary system--an arrangement thought to be based on harmonic relationships. Challenging critics who characterize Kepler's theories of harmonic astronomy as "mystical," Bruce Stephenson offers the first thorough technical analysis of the music the astronomer thought the heavens made, and the logic that led him to find musical patterns in his data. In so doing, Stephenson illuminates crucial aspects of Kepler's intellectual development, particularly his ways of classifying and drawing inferences.

Beginning with a survey of similar theories associating music with the cyclic motions of planets, from Plato to Boethius, the author highlights Ptolemy's Harmonics, a source of inspiration for Kepler's later work. Turning to Kepler himself, Stephenson gives an account of his polyhedral theory, which explains the number and sizes of the planetary orbits in terms of the five regular poly-hedral. He then examines in detail an early theory that relates the planets' vel-ocities to a musical chord, and analyzes Kepler's unpublished commentary on Ptolemy's Harmonics. Devoting most of his attention to Book Five of Harmonice mundi, in which Kepler elaborated on the musical structure of the planetary system, Stephenson lays important groundwork for any further evaluation of Kepler's scientific thought.

Originally published in 1994.

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"By 1618, Kepler had discovered his harmonic (or third) law of planetary motions. . . . Bruce Stephenson writes with great clarity and precision and leads the reader confidently through this rather complex byway of astronomical history. . . . Kepler's polyhedral theory of planetary distances is then studied in detail, followed by the core of the book: a thorough investigation of Kepler's musical harmonies of the heavens."--New Scientist0Preface and Acknowledgments Ch. I Introduction 3 Ch. II Earlier Theories of Astronomical Harmony 16 Ch. III Jofrancus Offusius: Scientific Astrology Based on Harmony 47 Ch. IV Distances to the Planets 64 Ch. V The Polyhedral Theory of the Mysterium cosmographicum 75 Ch. VI Kepler's First Harmonic Planetary Theory 90 Ch. VII The Reconstruction of Ptolemy's Harmonics 98 Ch. VIII The Harmonice mundi 118 Ch. IX Book 5 of the Harmonice mundi 128 Ch. 1 Regular Polyhedra 130 Ch. 2 Harmonic Proportions 131 Ch. 3 Astronomical Theory 135 Ch. 4 The Proper and Extreme Harmonies 145 Ch. 5 The Music of the Planetary Motions 154 Ch. 6 Heavenly Modes 165 Ch. 7 Universal Harmonies 170 Ch. 8 The Four Voices of Celestial Harmony 184 Ch. 9 The Causes of the Eccentricities 185 Ch. 10 Inhabitants of the Sun 236 Ch. X Conclusions 242 Bibliography 253 Index 257