What is the Music of the Spheres Society?

“These players are outstanding. (In) a formidable performance (of Messiaen’s “Quartet for the End of Time”), they brought this music of soaring lyrical beauty, violence, strength and strangeness... vividly to life in every particular. They should be playing it everywhere. They should take it on the road tomorrow.” - The New York Times

"Music of the Spheres is dedicated to exploring the links between music, philosophy, and the sciences." - The New Yorker

The Music of the Spheres Society - Chamber Music, Philosophy and Science
Stephanie Chase, Artistic Director

What is the Music of the Spheres Society? Inspired by the Neo-Platonic academies of 16th and 17th-century Italy, which combined discourse with musical presentations, the Music of the Spheres Society was founded in 2001 by its artistic director, Stephanie Chase, and Ann Ellsworth. The mission of the Society is to promote classical music through innovative chamber music concerts and pre-concert lectures which illuminate music’s historical, philosophical and scientific foundations, in order to give greater context for music to the average audience member. Incorporated in February 2002, the Music of the Spheres Society, Inc., is a non-profit, 501 c(3) organization.

The Society’s performing artists are renowned soloists and chamber musicians, many of whom also specialize in historic instrument practices or contemporary music. Its programs explore the contexts of music through programming themes and program notes and include chamber music master-pieces, lesser-known works, and world or US premieres. The 2007-2008 season marks its seventh year of presenting concerts and lectures in New York City and includes a concert at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall.

Lectures presented by the Society focus primarily on a philosophical, scientific, or historic aspect of music and reveal some of the historic contexts of composed music. The lectures and program notes are presented for a non-specialist audience.

What does “Music of the Spheres” refer to? “Music of the Spheres” is a term applied to an idea put forth by the Greek scholar Pythagoras (6th century BCE) and his followers, among them Plato and Kepler, that the proportional ratios used to describe musical intervals also refer to those of the physical universe, including the orbiting motion of planets. Pythagoras recognized the innate connection between musical sound, or its “pitch,” and the physical characteristics of an object producing that sound. He is credited with discovering the physical laws of musical sound through his observations that the ratio of mass - as in a vibrating string length sounding an interval - of a fifth is 2:3, that of an octave is 1:2, and that of the fourth is 3:4. Thus, he proved that there is a correlation between the vibrations of sound and the physical world, such as that of numbers and proportion.

Who is on the musical roster of the Society? Music of the Spheres currently has a core group of three artists: Stephanie Chase (violin), Hsin-Yun Huang (viola), and Jon Manasse (clarinet). Other illustrious artists are engaged on an individual basis and have included prominent soloists, chamber musicians, and principal members of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.

What residency programs does the Music of the Spheres Society offer? Music of the Spheres offers unique residency programs for music conservatories, colleges and art institutions, presented by its accomplished performing artists and guest lecturers. These are presented in conjunction with a concert performance. Master classes and workshop topics may be tailored to suit the desires of an institution and may include, among others:

Applied instruments (violin, cello, horn, piano, clarinet and others).
Chamber music performance.
The role of mathematics in the proportions of music and instruments.
Preparing for public concert performances, including techniques for overcoming anxiety.
An overview of an instrument type’s development, such as keyboard instruments.
Practices used by period instrumentalists and how to apply these ideals to modern performance.
The developments of the violin and bow, from Baroque through Classical and modern configurations, and their effects on playing styles.

Who lectures for the Society’s audience? Lecturers have included:

Stewart Pollens, Conservator of Musical Instruments at the Metropolitan Museum
Paul Scarbrough, an architect specializing in concert halls
Martin Nass, a Freudian psychoanalyst who writes on the psycho-analytic aspects of Classical music
Stuart Iscoff, author of "Temperament: The Idea That Solved Music's Greatest Riddle"
Eric Barnhill, founder of "Creative Eurhythmics

What are the Society’s other activities? The Society is locally engaged in educational and community outreach. Its school affiliations have included the High School for Violin and Dance, The Manhattan Comprehensive Night and Day High School, and Juilliard’s Music Advancement Program.

Overview The Music of the Spheres Society was founded in 2001 by Stephanie Chase and Ann Ellsworth, with the goal of "exploring the links between music, philosophy, and the sciences" (The New Yorker).

Its opening concert was on November 1, 2001 and was a benefit for two local New York City firehouses that had lost many firefighters in the World Trade Center attack and devastation on September 11. The Society's most recent concert took place on April 27, 2006 at Christ & St. Stephen's Church in New York City, with a program that featured works by Handel-Halvorsen, Schulhoff and Tchaikovsky.

The Society promotes and develops new audiences for classical music through innovative chamber music concerts and lectures that illuminate music’s historical, philosophical and scientific foundations, in order to provide greater contexts for music to the audience. Its performing artists are renowned soloists, chamber musicians, and principal members of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Its guest lecturers have included conservators from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a leading Freudian analyst, and authors of prominent books about music, its science and philosophy.

Below are some sample concert programs offered by the Society.

Sample Concert Programs of the Music of the Spheres Society

“The Inspirations of Johannes Brahms”

Partita in E Major for violin solo	J. S. Bach
Marchenbilder	Robert Schumann
Kakadu Variations	Ludwig van Beethoven
Clarinet Quintet in b minor	Johannes Brahms

Piano, 2 violins, viola, 'cello, clarinet

The music of Johannes Brahms owes its inspiration and beauty in part to the perfect architectural and expressive structures of the music by J. S. Bach, as in his Partita in E Major for violin solo, the inventive and balanced use of the theme and variation form exemplified by Beethoven in his Kakadu Variations, and the heroic lyricism of Schumann’s music as heard in the Marchenbilder (“Fairy Tales”) for viola and piano. Brahms’s own sublime Quintet for clarinet and strings concludes this program of chamber masterworks.

“A Folk Heritage: The Sounds of Bohemia”

Sonatina in G Major, Op. 100	Antonin Dvorak
Notturno concertante	Jan Ladislav Dussek
Duo for violin and ‘cello	Bohuslav Martinu
Quintet in D Major	Zdenek Fibich

Piano, violin, clarinet, horn and ‘cello

Antonin Dvorak is perhaps the best known of the Bohemian composers and is credited with establishing the Czech nationalist style. He is represented here by his Sonatina for violin and piano, written in 1893 while he resided in New York City and featuring a beautiful movement inspired by the African-American Spiritual. Martinu’s lively and virtuosic Duo from 1927 reflects an innovative use of form, including an extended cadenza for the ‘cellist. Jan Dussek’s Notturno (1808) is contemporaneous with Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony and reflects the lyricism and careful use of the Classical form. The final work is a quintet written by Zdenek Fibich in 1894, who was then as famous a composer as Dvorak.

“Music For the End of Time”

Sonata in A Minor, Op. 24	Ludwig van Beethoven
Trio	Aram Khachaturian
Quartet “For the End of Time”	Olivier Messiaen

Violin, cello, clarinet and piano

Beethoven, Khachaturian and Messiaen faced daunting circumstances that required great personal heroism to overcome. This concert features inspiring works composed by Beethoven as his hearing loss was rapidly progressing, Khachaturian as his fellow Armenians were being massacred, and Messiaen while he was held in a detention center during World War II.

“A Year in Music: 1914”

Sonata for violin and piano	Leos Janacek
Duo for violin and cello	Zoltan Kodaly
Suite populaire Espagnole	Manuel de Falla
Three Little Pieces for ‘cello and piano	Anton Webern
Piano Trio	Maurice Ravel

Violin, cello, clarinet and piano

This program explores the music created during the same year by famed Bohemian, Hungarian, Spanish, Austrian and French composers. From lovely Spanish songs by Falla through the virtuosic gypsy music of Kodaly’s Duo, Webern’s minimalism and Ravel’s atmospheric Piano Trio, we will hear the influences of folk music, the Second Viennese school, Impressionism, and the sounds of the street, at a time when World War I was brewing. New musical languages join old traditions in this snapshot of the sounds of 1914.

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