Music about Universe n' Everything in it

Subject: Music about Universe n' Everything in it
From: axman664
Date: 16 Aug 04 - 05:09 PM

I am planning on doing a concert featuring music of all styles with the theme being "The Universe and Everything in it" or something like that...basically, about the universe, stars, space, the planets, Earth, nature, etc. I will have a bunch of musicians helping, particularly a lot of folk musicians, and am wondering if you mudcatters could help me brainstorm some great folk music (bluegrass, Celtic, Americana, urban folk, etc.) about this topic. The concert would also incldude an astrophysicist-friend-of-mine talking about various images from the Hubble and other telescopes. Should be a lot of fun.

To get this started, I had considered the following tunes/pieces:

"Lord of the Starfields", "Creation Dream" --Bruce Cockburn
Excerpts from "The Planets" --Gustav Holst
"Calling the Moon" --Dar Williams
Excerpts from "The Creation" --Haydn
"Big Mistake" --David Wilcox
"Stella by Starlight" (jazz)

Any ideas?

Subject: RE: Music about Universe n' Everything in it
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 16 Aug 04 - 05:14 PM

The Universe song from Monty Python!

:-)

Subject: RE: Music about Universe n' Everything in it
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 16 Aug 04 - 05:16 PM

oops..

When The Stars Come Down, by Richard Thompson

Orion by James Keelaghan...

Subject: RE: Music about Universe n' Everything in it
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 16 Aug 04 - 05:25 PM

Across the Universe...John Lennon, The Beatles

Subject: RE: Music about Universe n' Everything in it
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 16 Aug 04 - 05:27 PM

Major Tom, David Bowie!

:-)

Subject: RE: Music about Universe n' Everything in it
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 16 Aug 04 - 05:27 PM

Here's a health to the bird in the bush - has the wonderful line, we've tarried here all day, to drink the sun away, let us tarry now and drink down the moon - or something like it.

LTS

Subject: RE: Music about Universe n' Everything in it
From: Amos
Date: 16 Aug 04 - 05:58 PM

I think you'll find one composition by multiple authors in the Mudcat Song Book on this theme.

A

Subject: RE: Music about Universe n' Everything in it
From: Bill D
Date: 16 Aug 04 - 08:46 PM

"Bold Orion" --Leo Kretzner

Subject: RE: Music about Universe n' Everything in it
From: rich-joy
Date: 16 Aug 04 - 09:31 PM

When the Stars Begin to Fall - a la The Seekers
The Dolphins - Fred Neill
From a Distance - a la Nanci Griffith
Purple People-Eater - Shep Woolley
Fly Me to the Moon - a la Sinatra
Drink Down the Moon - a la Steeleye Span??

Cheers! R-J

Subject: RE: Music about Universe n' Everything in it
From: The Shambles
Date: 17 Aug 04 - 01:45 AM

Wtite the Uni-Verse

This was the thread.

I had a look but I could not seem to find the finished version in the Mudcat Songbook..............

Subject: RE: Music about Universe n' Everything in it
From: Splott Man
Date: 17 Aug 04 - 03:35 AM

Stick a Little Label On It by (I can't remember), recorded by Wizz Jones and also John James is a witty song that covers it.

Subject: RE: Music about Universe n' Everything in it
From: The Shambles
Date: 17 Aug 04 - 05:36 AM

I had another look, when I was more awake - and found it.

To write the Uni-verse

Subject: RE: Music about Universe n' Everything in it
From: JennyO
Date: 17 Aug 04 - 10:09 AM

How about "Universe's Daughter" by Fay White - I sang it at a session tonight as a matter of fact - also "Message from Mother Earth" by Frankie Armstrong.

The words of both of these are on the Ecopella website:

here

A number of the other songs on this site might also interest you. "Fragile" by Sting is one I love too.

Jenny

Subject: RE: Music about Universe n' Everything in it
From: Joe_F
Date: 17 Aug 04 - 10:26 AM

Weisst du, wieviel Sterne stehen?
                                 
Wilhelm Hey
                                 
Weisst du wieviel Sterne stehen
An dem blauen Himmelszelt?
Weisst du wieviel Wolken gehen
Weithin ueber alle Welt?
Gott der Herr hat sie gezaehlet,
Dass ihm auch nicht eines fehlet
|: An der ganzen grossen Zahl. :|

Weisst du wieviel Muecklein spielen
In der hellen Sonnenglut?
Wieviel Fischlein auch sich kuehlen
In der hellen Wasserflut?
Gott, der Herr, rief sie mit Namen
Dass sie all' ins Leben kamen
|: Dass sie nun so froehlich sind. :|

3. Weisst du, wieviel Kinder fruehe
Stehn aus ihrem Bettlein auf,
Dass sie ohne Sorg und Muehe
Froehlich sind im Tageslauf?
Gott im Himmel hat an allen
Seine Lust, Sein Wohlgefallen,
|: Kennt auch dich und hat dich lieb. :|

Do you know how many stars have their place in the blue tent of heaven? Do you know many clouds go all over the world? The Lord God has counted them, that not one of their whole great number may be missing.

This little children's hymn is quoted at the beginning of Norbert Wiener's _Cybernetics_, to introduce a charming essay on the contrast between astronomy & meteorology as types of science.

Also in a pious vein, you might consider the Captain Kidd hymn.

Subject: Lyr Add: GALAXY SONG (Eric Idle & John Du Prez)
From: The Shambles
Date: 17 Aug 04 - 04:08 PM

My favourite.

The Galaxy Song
Words by Eric Idle

Whenever life gets you down, Mrs. Brown,
And things seem hard or tough,
And people are stupid, obnoxious or daft,

And you feel that you've had quite eno-o-o-o-o-ough,
Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving
And reolving at nine thousand miles an hour.

It's orbiting at nineteen miles a second, so it's reckoned,
The sun that is the source of all our power.
Now the sun, and you and me, and all the stars that we can see,
Are moving at a million miles a day,
In the outer spiral arm, at fourteen thousand miles an hour,
Of a galaxy we call the Milky Way.

Our galaxy itself contains a hundred million stars;
It's a hundred thousand light-years side to side;
It bulges in the middle sixteen thousand light-years thick,
But out by us it's just three thousand light-years wide.
We're thirty thousand light-years from Galactic Central Point,
We go 'round every two hundred million years;
And our galaxy itself is one of millions of billions
In this amazing and expanding universe.

Our universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding,
In all of the directions it can whiz;
As fast as it can go, that's the speed of light, you know,
Twelve million miles a minute and that's the fastest speed there is.
So remember, when you're feeling very small and insecure,
How amazingly unlikely is your birth;
And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere out in space,
'Cause there's bugger all down here on Earth!

Subject: RE: Music about Universe n' Everything in it
From: The Shambles
Date: 17 Aug 04 - 04:19 PM

If we could see the night sky
From our nearest star.

                     It would look much the same,
                     As from where we are.


                                     The only difference that would appear,
                                     Is just another star in Cassiopeia.

(Roger Gall 1998)

That's about the size of it....

Subject: RE: Music about Universe n' Everything in it
From: axman664
Date: 23 Aug 04 - 02:34 PM

Thanks, Shambles, for the Eric Idle tune...that will certainly serve as the centerpiece for the concert!!!

-Dan

Subject: RE: Music about Universe n' Everything in it
From: GUEST,Dan Polk
Date: 26 Oct 04 - 06:04 PM

I was thinking that this may be good: On a Sea of Fleur de Lis Richard Shindell.

Subject: RE: Music about Universe n' Everything in it
From: GUEST,Remulac
Date: 19 Nov 04 - 04:56 PM

"Calling Occupants" by Klaatu


"Rocket Man" by Elton John


"2001" Theme


Moon-Age Daydream by David Bowie

Subject: RE: Music about Universe n' Everything in it
From: GUEST
Date: 19 Nov 04 - 05:48 PM

There are several Animaniacs songs that deal with the universe and planets. "Its a great big universe" and "the planets song" are two of them that come to mind.