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*This is a paid Adult School class. Click on the ticketing link to register.
Did you know that since ancient times scientists have tried to understand the workings of the solar system and the universe itself by speculating about their mathematical connections to musical intervals and harmony? From antiquity to modern musical compositions, learn about how people have tried to see, hear and dance to the music of the spheres. We will explore the theories of the 6th century BCE philosopher and geometrician Pythagoras, the Babylonians, the Chaldaeans, the Persians, the Roman Stoic versions of celestial harmonies, Ptolemy's system of interlocking circular orbits, refinements of Islamic Golden Age astronomers and mathematicians, the mystical applications of these theories from Plato and Cicero to Sufi mystics and whirling Dervishes, and Kepler's mystical yet scientifically revolutionary study, Harmonia Mundi, Harmony of the Universe. We will also examine how these ideas resulted in the development by Islamic scientists of the earliest astrolabes for tracking celestial movements--and create our own working astrolabes and use them!
