There are quite a few books about the overlap of art and science. This book tackles the overlap between science and music.

In general, there is much in common among all creative endeavors. As physicist Richard Feynman opined, artistic works and scientific works both reveal truth; just in a different way. (Indeed, Feynman was an avid bongo player; there are still videos available on YouTube showing him playing.)

The author of this book, Jamie James, traces this correspondence in Western intellectual life beginning with the ancient Greeks. He writes that everything in the universe was seen as a reflection of the essential perfection fo the universe and its harmonies. James posits “the ancient tradition of the musical cosmos, embracing and unifying noble rationalism and ecstatic mysticism, has survived.” He further contents that “What we may call the great theme - the belief that the cosmos is a sublimely harmonious system guided by a Supreme Intelligence . . . runs throughout Western civilization.” He then sets out to present “an anecdotal history of the symphony of science and its counterpoint, the wisdom of music, traced across the centuries from its inception up to the most bewildering period faced by any historian - the present.”

Following his introduction the chapters are:

Pythagoras, the Master
Plato and the World Soul
“The Key to the Universe”
The Renaissance Musici
The Music of the Spheres and the Birth of the Opera
The Hermetic Tradition
Kepler Pythagorizes
Newton and The Magic Flute
The Romantic Anomaly
Schoenberg and the Revival of the Great Theme
Into the Future

Evaluation: This book indeed seems “anecdotal,” just as the author allows, includes a lot of fuzzy concepts, and only tackles a limited area of the globe and its history. But if approached with an awareness of its limitations, it has some interesting information to convey. ( )

Born and raised in Texas, educated at Williams College, Jamie James worked as a freelance writer in New York for more than twenty years, with regular posts as critic at The New Yorker and The Times of London. In 1999 he moved to Indonesia to concentrate on writing books. He is the author of fiction, biography, and long-form criticism. He and his partner own and operate two restaurants in Seminyak, Bali. ( )

boring and repetitive, cures insomnia