Fleur's Place

In Book V of The Harmony of The World (published in 1619), Kepler undertook the task of divining "the most perfect harmony of the heavenly motions." The quotations are from his book.

Johannes Kepler assigned a musical interval representing the motion of each of the known planets around the sun, and he spelled these intervals out using musical notation. I used them as the starting points for these pieces of music.

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In Kepler's scheme, Mercury has an eccentric interval, represented here as A2 to C4 in the Aeolian mode.

Toccata for two dulcimers, kalimba, two flutes, harp, and percussion:

"Venus remains almost on unison, not amounting … even to the smallest of the melodic intervals."

Fugue for flute, harp, and fretless bass:

"The Earth sings MI FA MI, so that … in this home of ours MIsery and FAmine hold sway."

Fantasia for harp, synthesizer, percussive organ, and percussion:

"Here the Moon also has a place." (It's also a fourth, from G2 to Middle C, a nice way to begin a fugue!)

Fugue for flute, harp, and fretless bass:

"[A]t perihelion [Mars] attains c, at aphelion it hints at f …," which "is an interval common to all the modes…."

Fugue for flute, harp, and fretless bass:

"[I]f [Jupiter's] motion at aphelion is matched with G, its motion at perihelion reaches b [B-flat]…."

Carnival dance number for four trumpets, two trombones, synthesizer, fretless bass, and percussion:

"[I]f you set [Saturn's] tonic note as G, its motion at perihelion ascends to h [B natural]…" and it is a major third.

Chorale prelude and fugue for flute, harp, and fretless bass