New Performance Helps Connect Science Through Music

A new composition, performed live for the first time on December 14th at the Black Hole Symphony at the Christine McAuliffe Center, is helping people discover science through music.

David Ibbett is Resident Composer at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA), Professor of Music at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and the Director of Multiverse Concert Series. His new “Voice of the Universe” project uses music to shed light on astrophysical data and images.

The first song to be released, entitled “Luminosity,” was created from the image SMACS 0723 made from data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and James Webb Space Telescope. Different parts of the image are sonified in different ways. Sonification is the process of translating astronomical data into sound using scientific and mathematical mapping. This allows humans to engage with data from the cosmos using one of their senses other than sight.

(The Chandra X-ray Observatory, which is based at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and part of the CfA, has been a leader in sonification and has multiple sonifications projects spearheaded by Dr. Kimberly Arcand that can be found at https://chandra.si.edu/sound/)

In this new piece from Ibbett, the blue Chandra data becomes the viola and cello lines, where further from the center generates higher notes. Notice the exciting jumps at the bottom left corner.

The distant red galaxies are played by flute, jumping from the leading edge of the scan line, where further from the center generates higher notes. The agile range of the instrument can barely keep up with these complex, circular shapes.

The bright foreground stars are played by brass and chimes, where again, further from the center generates higher notes. These almost dominate the other lines, being so bright in comparison.

All of the layers come together at the end, against rapid drums — you can experience this at 4:15 in the main video.

Agnes Coakley Cox, soprano, sings in the Great Refractor Telescope at the CfA in the music video. This was once home to the Harvard Computers, a pioneering group of women in the 19th century who made groundbreaking discoveries in astrophysics in a time where women were prevented from holding academic positions. Cox sings about how special our moment is in history, how lucky we are to be able to experience these wonders, and how these images can teach us so much about the nature of our universe. The magnification of these distant galaxies shows them in exquisite detail — so much so that we may, through a gravitational lens, be able to find the first stars to ignite in our universe — and one day understand the birth of stars and galaxies in the cosmic dark ages some 13 billion years ago.

To learn more, look out for Ibbett’s behind-the-science video of the project, featuring an interview with Grant Tremblay of the CfA, releasing later this month.

-Megan Watzke, CXC