Holst’s The Planets with Brian Cox

[Turangalîla]

I found this a fascinating and enjoyable program but I was unable at all to reconcile Holst’s musical planets with Brian Cox’s physical planets.

It was striking that for each planet in turn, Cox’s descriptions of the worlds informed by astronomy and science were at odds with Holst’s representations inspired by mythology and astrology - not just at odds, in utter incongruity. The terrestrial and human exist in a different imaginative dimension to the celestial and the alien.

I wondered if there is a planet suite to be compiled for each of these worlds as we now understand them? My imagination failed me completely. Nature in art is represented though our relation to it, the planets are mysterious and inhospitable, and music, the most abstract of arts is always psychological. I cannot think of a modern 'Planets'.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

There was an article on today's Music Matters describing a new collection of works, each by different composers doing "exactly" (near enough) what you described here, T'g'lila.

I can't give a link with this device, but it should be easy to find on the Been/R3 website

[Barbirollians]

There was an article on today's Music Matters describing a new collection of works, each by different composers doing "exactly" (near enough) what you described here, T'g'lila.

I can't give a link with this device, but it should be easy to find on the Been/R3 website

Missed this but listened later to Boult's superb 1978 account with the LPO recorded nearly 60 years after he first made Holst's Planets shine .

[Pabmusic]

Missed this but listened later to Boult's superb 1978 account with the LPO recorded nearly 60 years after he first made Holst's Planets shine .

Very close - May 12, May 30, June 4, and July 30 1978.

[Quarky]

I found this a fascinating and enjoyable program but I was unable at all to reconcile Holst’s musical planets with Brian Cox’s physical planets.

............... Nature in art is represented though our relation to it, the planets are mysterious and inhospitable, and music, the most abstract of arts is always psychological. I cannot think of a modern 'Planets'.

You might try John Coltrane's Interstellar Space -available on YouTube. But I would guess the music is well away from your comfort zone!

[MrGongGong]

I worked with a group of young composers who composed an Earth movement for a performance in the Cambridge Music festival several years ago.
We also worked with astronomers from the University Institure of Astronomy on a parallel project to create a sound installation using space sounds (actual, sonifications and pulsar sounds).

[BBMmk2]

I found this a fascinating and enjoyable program but I was unable at all to reconcile Holst’s musical planets with Brian Cox’s physical planets.

It was striking that for each planet in turn, Cox’s descriptions of the worlds informed by astronomy and science were at odds with Holst’s representations inspired by mythology and astrology - not just at odds, in utter incongruity. The terrestrial and human exist in a different imaginative dimension to the celestial and the alien.

I wondered if there is a planet suite to be compiled for each of these worlds as we now understand them? My imagination failed me completely. Nature in art is represented though our relation to it, the planets are mysterious and inhospitable, and music, the most abstract of arts is always psychological. I cannot think of a modern 'Planets'.

and the BBC SO conducted by Ben Gernon(!), I hasten to add!

A very good performance from the BBCSO/Ben Gernon last night. Also Professor Brian Cox was his usual expert self in explaining and telling us about the relationships and making it easier for us laymen to understand these astronomical terms etc.

[Turangalîla]

There was an article on today's Music Matters describing a new collection of works, each by different composers doing "exactly" (near enough) what you described here, T'g'lila.

I can't give a link with this device, but it should be easy to find on the Been/R3 website

Found it

https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/play/m0000kfl

Thank you.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

[Serial_Apologist]

You might try John Coltrane's Interstellar Space -available on YouTube. But I would guess the music is well away from your comfort zone!

Ooh, I dunno - from his pen name he sounds like he might well be a Messiaen freak!

How about Sun Ra's "Space is the Place"?

[Bryn]

Ooh, I dunno - from his pen name he sounds like he might well be a Messiaen freak!

How horny was that!?

[Serial_Apologist]

How horny was that!?

Worth a tenor!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I caught up with this fascinating programme this morning. Professor Cox did not attempt to say much about the music, letting it speak for himself. I was a bit worried that the actual Radio 3 presenter would comment upon his commentary, but she didn't, until the end, when the usual trivial irrelevancies seemed to raise their ugly heads, though it was only mildly irritating.

The worst was yet to come: the next presenter introduced "Pluto" by Colin Matthews. The blurb was informative at first, but then he tried very hard to be "cool" by saying "Who cares whether Pluto is part of the Solar System?" as though anyone have disputed that very scientific fact. Kuiper Belt objects, asteroids and comets are all part of the Solar System. Perhaps he thought Pluto was orbiting Alpha Centauri?

[Richard Barrett]

Kuiper Belt objects, asteroids and comets are all part of the Solar System. Perhaps he thought Pluto was orbiting Alpha Centauri?

Hanns Eisler: "People who only know about music don't know about that either."

[BBMmk2]

I like Colin Matthews work Pluto. A very good description of how the planet is.