I went to listen to the Boston Symphony Orchestra last night perform Gustav Holst’s The Planets at Symphony Hall. Amazing! Composed between 1914 and 1916, it consists of seven movements named after Mars, Venus, Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune.

Turns out this suite has inspired others to compose music named after other celestial bodies:

– Ceres (the largest known asteroid or a dwarf planet, depending on what source you read), by British composer Mark-Anthony Turnage, which premiered in the US last night at the BSO concert (response from the audience was lukewarm at best)

– Pluto, the Renewer, by British composer Colin Matthews, composed in 2000

– my favorite: Asteroid 4179: Toutatis by Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho (they have to come up with a more romantic name for this asteroid if it’s the subject of music now)

Is there any other scientific/natural phenomena that has inspired this much music?