En archē ēn ho Logos: “In the beginning was the Word”. This is the traditional translation of the Incipit of the Gospel of John. In Goethe’s “Faust” (Part I, Study Room), other possible interpretations of the term “logos” are suggested: “meaning”, “power”, “action”. The sentence could also be translated as: “In the beginning was the Sound”. Sound plays a decisive role in many creation myths of different cultures. Poets, philosophers, theologians, scientists, artists of all kinds and, last but not least, musicians have always been concerned with the question of the origin of the world. From the perspective of a composer, the question is: What does the beginning of the world sound like?
This book is a journey through the history of Western music from a cosmogonic point of view. On the basis of works composed between the 18th and the 21st century, it is shown how the cosmos sounds. By means of works written between the 18th and 21st centuries, it is shown with which musical means various composers (from Jean-Féry Rebel to Joseph Haydn, from Gustav Mahler to Charles Ives, from Richard Wagner to Karlheinz Stockhausen, etc.) have attempted to evoke the creation of the world, and which sonic archetypes they have drawn upon in order to acoustically represent the beginning of all things.
Published by Königshausen & Neuman: Würzburg 2021
https://verlag.koenigshausen-neumann.de/product/9783826070167-musica-cosmogonica/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpDwWC16gKY