Jean-Pierre Luminet: The harmony of the spheres, from antiquity to contemporary music

ABSTRACT: 

The "harmony of the spheres" naively  imagined by Pythagoras and  revisited many centuries later by Kepler in an interesting manner, has been sent back in the cohort of illusions by modern astronomy. Telescopes and astrophysical theories have revealed that the sky is a space of noise, rhythm, and violence. A number of pieces of contemporary music try to reflect this new image of cosmic frenzy. I will recall how some compositions by John Cage, André Boucourechliev and many others aim to use  astronomical and mathematical features to create "open forms". I will discuss more particularly the specific collaborations I had with contemporary composers, such as Gérard Grisey and his "Le Noir de l'Etoile" (1990), for six percussionists, magnetic tape  and retransmission in situ of astronomical signals. The piece was inspired by the signals of pulsars, the remnant cores of collapsed stars whose tremendously dense masses rotate at extraordinary speeds while giving off streams of radio energy. The signals produced by these celestial bodies are an integral part of the composition, in some instances being transmitted in "real time" from a radiotelescope as part of the performance. They become part of the battery of percussion instruments for which "Le Noir de l'Etoile" is scored.

 

ABOUT JEAN-PIERRE LUMINET:

Jean-Pierre Luminet is an astrophysicist at the Paris-Meudon Observatory in France and a leading expert on black holes, cosmology, and the new field of cosmic topology - the study of the overall shape of the universe. He has published numerous articles in the most prestigious journals and reviews in these areas. The scientific community has paid tribute to his work by giving the name "Luminet" to the small planet no. 5523, discovered in 1991 at Mount Palomar. He was awarded many prizes for his work in pure science and in science communication. Indeed one of Luminet's greatest efforts has been to make his research work understandable to the non-scientific community.
Luminet is also a prominent figure in art and literature. He has produced a dozen of popular science books, six historical novels, TV documentaries, multimedia productions, and six collections of poetry. He is also an artist, engraver and sculptor. Interested in the relationship between science and art, he has collaborated with many  artists on the creation of works inspired by his scientific discoveries.

Books of J.-P. Luminet translated in English :

The Wraparound Universe, AK Peters, 2008

Celestial Treasury, Cambridge University Press, 2001

Glorious Eclipses, Cambridge University Press, 2000

Black Holes, Cambridge University Press, 1992