Music of the Spheres
Overview
Para1The music of the spheres, also known as musica universalis (“universal music”), is an idea that originates as far back as 600 BC. The concept
of this music is usually connected to celestial beings. This celestial music could
mean audible music or the nonliteral music of heavenly beings; mortals were usually
believed unable to hear the celestial song. In the early modern period, several mentions
of music, specifically the celestial music of the spheres (or orbs), can be found
in the plays of William Shakespeare and his contemporaries.
Para2Musical orbs, and the mortal inability to hear them, are specifically mentioned in
Act 5 of The Merchant of Venice:
There’s not the smallest orb which though behold’stBut in his motion like an angel sings,Still choiring to the young-eyed cherubins.Such harmony is in immortal souls,But whilst this muddy vesture of decayDoth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it.(5.1.69–74)
The Spheres
Para3 In the early modern era, music of the spheres was viewed as a connection between
the celestial and the mundane. The spheres are spherical shapes that can be seen in the sky, such as the sun, moon, and stars,
believed to originate with the imagined physics of the universe, in which crystalline
spheres held the celestial bodies as they circled the earth. Thinkers of the age believed
the music of the spheres would have felt more significant when art was being performed
in an outdoor or open theater.
Para4Due to early modern performance practices, especially the prevalence of outdoor theaters
which operated only in daylight hours, there were no external lights on stage apart
from torches or candles carried by actors, so any mention of light from the sun, stars,
or moon would have either been the literal daylight coming into the theater or the
imagination of the actor and audience involved. In The Merchant of Venice, Lorenzo considers,
How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank! Here will we sit and let the sounds of music creep in our ears: soft stillness and the night become the touches of sweet harmony(5.1.60–64).
Para5The spheres were also a reference to the mathematical and scientific aspects of the
sky. Fascination with the stars (their movement, distance, etc.) was very common in
the period, and the mystical connection of the stars with other aspects of life would
have been of great interest in the arts. Astrology was a very popular system of thinking,
so many people ascribed events in their lives to the movement of the planets and stars.
The music of the spheres was considered a phenomenon that brought together the spiritual,
artistic, and scientific aspects of life.
The Music
Para6Although the music of the spheres was usually a figurative concept rather than audible
voices and instruments, music remained an important element in early modern plays.
Music was thought to have celestial power and could be used for good and evil. Music
of the spheres would usually symbolize harmony and balance in the universe.
Para7King Henry VIII features a gentlewoman singing a song about the powers of music:
Orpheus with his lute made treesAnd the mountaintops that freezeBow themselves when he did sing.To his music plants and flowersEver sprung, as sun and showersThere had made a lasting spring.Every thing that heard him play,Even the billows of the sea,Hung their heads, and then lay by.In sweet music is such art,Killing care and grief of heartFall asleep, or hearing, die.(3.1.5–15)
Para8This song in the play shows the beliefs held about music’s power in the period. Music
is described as having the power to control the billowing sea as well as human emotions.
It is also notable that the stage directions instruct this verse to be sung by one
of Queen Katherine’s gentlewomen. The queen confesses her sadness and asks for a song
to help alleviate her suffering.
Key Print Sources
James, Jamie. The Music of the Spheres : Music, Science, and the Natural Order of the Universe. Grove Press, 1993.
Rogers, George L.
The Music of the Spheres.Music Educators Journal, vol. 103, no. 1, 2016, p. 41.
Sasson, Sarah. Music of the Spheres. Indiana University Press, 2012.
Sulka, Emily.
Shakespeare’s Philosophy of Music.Musical Offerings, vol. 8, no. 2, 2017, pp. 41–50.
Ungureanu, Cristian.
The Music of Spheres God as A Geometer.Anastasis: Research in Medieval Culture and Art, vol. 1, no. 1, 2014, pp. 52–68.
Key Online Sources
Best, Michael.
The Music of the Spheres.Shakespeare’s Life and Times. Internet Shakespeare Editions. University of Victoria. https://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/ideas/order/scale.html. Accessed 14 Sep. 2018.
Samuel, Dana.
The Music of the Spheres.Sensory Studies. https://www.sensorystudies.org/picture-gallery/spheres_image/. Accessed 10 Dec. 2025.
Prosopography
Kate McPherson
Kate McPherson is Professor of English and Honors Program Director at Utah Valley
University (Orem, UT, USA). In 2015, she began working to redevelop Shakespeare’s Life and Times, created by Michael Best, into the Early Modern England Encyclopedia. Her other publications include commentary on Pericles and The Comedy of Errors for the New Oxford Shakespeare (2016); the co-edited volumes Stages of Engagement: Drama and Religion in Post-Reformation England with James Mardock (Duquesne University Press, 2014) and Shakespeare Expressed: Page, Stage, and Classroom in Shakespeare and His Contemporaries, with Kathryn M. Moncrief and Sarah Enloe (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press,
2013). With Kathryn M. Moncrief, Kate has also two edited collections, Performing Pedagogy in Early Modern England: Gender, Instruction, and Performance (Ashgate, 2011) and Performing Maternity in Early Modern England (Ashgate 2008). She has also published numerous articles on early modern maternity
in scholarly journals. Kate participated in the 2008 National Endowment for the Humanities
Institute,
Shakespeare’s Blackfriars: The Study, the Stage, the Classroom,at the American Shakespeare Center. She also served as Play Seminar Director, a public humanities position, for the Utah Shakespeare Festival in 2017 and 2018.
Leah Hamby
Leah Hamby is the primary encoder for the Early Modern England Encyclopedia. Aside from encoding, she also works as an editor for the project and contributed
several articles of her own. She has been working on the EMEE since February 2023. As of February 2026, she is soon to graduate with honours from
Utah Valley University with a major in history and a minor in creative writing. Her
other work with the LEMDO program includes remediating William Kemp’s Kemp’s Nine Day’s Wonder for the Digital Renaissance Editions.
Marley Chamberlain
Marley Chamberlain was a student at Utah Valley University.
Michael Best
Michael Best is Professor Emeritus at the University of Victoria, BC. He founded the
Internet Shakespeare Editions in 1996, and was Coordinating Editor until 2017, contributing two editions to the
ISE: King John and King Lear (the latter also available in print from Broadview Press). In print, he has published editions of works of Elizabethan magic and huswifery,
a collection of letters from the Australian goldfields, and Shakespeare on the Art of Love (2008). He contributed regular columns for the Shakespeare Newsletter on
Electronic Shakespeares,and has written many articles and chapters for both print and online books and journals, principally on questions raised by the new medium in the editing and publication of texts. He has delivered papers and plenary lectures on electronic media and the Internet Shakespeare Editions at conferences in Canada, the USA, the UK, Spain, Australia, and Japan.
Navarra Houldin
Training and Documentation Lead 2025–present. LEMDO project manager 2022–2025. Textual
remediator 2021–present. Navarra Houldin (they/them) completed their BA with a major
in history and minor in Spanish at the University of Victoria in 2022. Their primary
research was on gender and sexuality in early modern Europe and Latin America. They
are continuing their education through an MA program in Gender and Social Justice
Studies at the University of Alberta where they will specialize in Digital Humanities.
Orgography
LEMDO Team (LEMD1)
The LEMDO Team is based at the University of Victoria and normally comprises the project
director, the lead developer, project manager, junior developers(s), remediators,
encoders, and remediating editors.
University of Victoria (UVIC1)
https://www.uvic.ca/Metadata
| Authority title | Music of the Spheres |
| Type of text | Critical |
| Publisher | University of Victoria on the Linked Early Modern Drama Online Platform |
| Series | Early Modern England Encyclopedia |
| Source |
By Marley Chamberlain, inspired by Michael Best’s Shakespeare’s Life and Times, Internet Shakespeare Editions
|
| Editorial declaration | This document uses Canadian English spelling |
| Edition | Released with Early Modern England Encyclopedia 1.0a |
| Sponsor(s) |
Early Modern England EncyclopediaAnthology Leads: Kate McPherson and Kate Moncrief.
|
| Encoding description | Encoded in TEI P5 according to the LEMDO Customization and Encoding Guidelines |
| Document status | published, peer-reviewed |
| Funder(s) |
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
Mitacs Globalink Research Internship Utah Valley University |
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Intellectual copyright in this entry is held by Kate McPherson on behalf of the contributors. Copyright on the TEI-XML markup is held by the University of Victoria on behalf of the LEMDO Team. The content and TEI-XML markup in this file are licensed under a CC BY-NC_ND 4.0 license. This file is freely downloadable without permission under the following conditions:
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