Music from the Black Hole

This movie was a flop but I remember loving it as a wee raylad. Maybe it was the music.

And if there's something here faintly familiar for indie heads,

Alabama United Sacred Harp Musical Association, "The Last Words of Copernicus"

Gets me every fucking time, too. 

Ye golden lamps of Heav'n farewell,
   With all your feeble light;
Farewell thou ever changing moon,
  Pale empress of the night.
And thou refulgent orb of day,
   In brighter flames array'd;
My soul which springs beyond thy sphere
  No more demands thy aid.

Ye stars are but the shining dust
   Of my divine abode,
The pavements of those heavenly courts,
  Where I shall see my God.
The Father of eternal light
   Shall there his beams display;
Nor shall one moment's darkness mix
  With that unvaried day.
No more the drops of piercing grief
  Shall swell into my eyes;
Nor the meridian sun decline,
  Amidst those brighter skies.
There all the millions of his saints
  Shall in one song unite;
And each the bliss of all shall view
   With infinite delight.

And check out this experiment in echo I performed on the song.

Found out today by chance that there's a church that sacred harp singing right down the street from me. 

Stockhausen: Tuning In

Robert Harrison on Jimi Hendrix

Looks like Jimi Hendrix is on the charts again. This is only interesting because, uh, I guess charts are still a thing in music. But it's really a pretext for me to turn you on to the show Entitled Opinions, if you've never heard it. This is an intellectual talk show based at Stanford University, and broadcast on KZSU. It's been a big inspiration to me in doing both the Interpletary Music and Anarchy & Culture podcasts. Here's a monologue on Jimi Hendrix by host Robert Harrison. There's also been great shows on Heidegger, Wallace Stevens, Nietzsche, Dante (Harrison is a Dante scholar), Kurt Weill, Freud, the Unabomber, Jesus, and a shit-ton more.

Manly P. Hall on Pythagoras and the Music of the Spheres

Having once established music as an exact science, Pythagoras applied his newly found law of harmonic intervals to all the phenomena of Nature, even going so far as to demonstrate the harmonic relationship of the planets, constellations, and elements to each other. A notable example of modern corroboration of ancient philosophical teaching is that of the progression of the elements according to harmonic rations. While making a list of the elements in the ascending order of their atomic weights, John A. Newlands discovered at every eighth element a distinct repetition of properties. This discovery is known as the law of octaves in modern chemistry.

. . .

It is probable that the Pythagoreans recognized a connection between the Seven Greek modes and the planets. As an example, Pliny declares that Saturn moves in the Dorian mode and Jupiter in the Phrygian mode. It is also apparent that the temperaments are keyed to the various modes, and the passions likewise. Thus, anger (which is a fiery passion) may be accentuated by a fiery mode or its power neutralized by a watery mode.

. . .

Pythagoras conceived the universe to be an immense monochord, with its single string connected at its upper end to absolute spirit and its lower end to absolute matter- in other words, a cord stretched between heaven and earth.

. . .

Many early instruments had seven strings, and it is generally conceded that Pythagoras was the one who added the eighth string to the lyre of Terpander. The seven strings were always related both to their correspondences on the human body and to the planets. The names of God were also conceived to be formed from combinations of the seven planetary harmonies. The Egyptians confirmed their sacred songs to the seven primary sounds, forbidding any others to be uttered in their temples. One of their hymns contained the following invocation: "The seven sounding tones praise Thee, the Great God, the ceaseless working Father of the whole universe." In another the Deity describes Himself thus: "I am the great indestructible lyre of the whole world, attuning the songs of the heavens."

The Pythagoreans believed that everything which existed had a voice and that all creatures were eternally singing the praise of the Creator. Man fails to hear these divine melodies because his soul is enmeshed in the illusion of material existence. When he liberates himself from the bondage of the lower world with its sense limitations, the music of the spheres will again be audible as it was in the Golden Age. Harmony recognizes harmony, and when the human soul regains its true estate it will not only hear the celestial choir but also join with it in an everlasting anthem of praise to that Eternal Good controlling the infinite number of parts and conditions of Being.

-from The Secret Teachings of All Ages

The Sky is Falling

This is not music related. It just needs to be seen. The meteorite that crashed in Russia on Friday morning (hat tip to Space Cadet Joe):

Episode #1: Interplanetary Music Blasts Off!

Download Episode 1!

Playlist

1. Blast Off!- The Monks
2. Rocket USA- Suicide
3. Rocket #9 Takes Off for the Planet Venus- Sun Ra
4. Starship- MC5
5. Astronomy Domine- The Pink Floyd
6. Interstellar Overdrive- The Pink Floyd
7. Kometenmelodie 1- Kraftwerk
8. Yes! I am a Long Way from Home- Mogwai
9. We Travel the Spaceways- Sun Ra
10. Nepture, the Mystic- Gustav Holst
11. Requiem for Soprano, Mezzo Soprano, Two Mixed Choirs, & Orchestra- Gyorgy Ligeti