Music symphony celebrates space - 23rd June 2023

Space and music are two unusual partners. But they've been brought together in 'Cosmic Cycles', a symphony about space.

Images from the James Webb telescope started the project for NASA. The music was written by composer Henry Dehlinger and is played by the United States' National Philharmonic Orchestra.

Henry Dehlinger: "For me, as I was writing it, it was a meditation. And I think we are bringing the audience along to experience that very same meditation. I looked at each film as a meditation into itself - a meditation on the Sun, a meditation on our home planet, a meditation on the cosmos generally."

Seven separate sections make up the symphony, which combines music with incredible images. The piece begins with the Sun and then looks at Earth. The Moon, other planets and then aspects of the wider universe follow.

Photo and video material of Earth which was taken by astronauts is included in Cosmic Cycles. In addition, there are 'visualisations' - images which communicate actual scientific data.

Dehlinger believes the images are powerful simply because they're real - they aren't fake or made by AI.

Henry Dehlinger: "I think the music written for a lot of those space movies, space films are, is, is fantastic. But what we're seeing tonight at this premiere is not science fiction. It's the actual science. It's the real deal. We're actually looking at the Sun. We're actually looking at the solar system. We're actually looking at the origins of the universe."

NASA's wonderful pictures were the starting point, but Dehlinger went further than this. He listened to the sound of a black hole, which he then placed in his symphony.

Henry Dehlinger: And so when you, when you see the black holes in tonight's performance, you're actually gonna hear what a black hole sounds like to the human ear, while you're looking at the images of the black hole. And it's an incredibly spooky, eerie sound."

Last month, the symphony was performed live for the first time. However, it's accessible on the NASA website from any location on the home planet.