ASTRO-MUSIC COMPOSITION (CHART TO MUSIC)
FOREWORD
In response to many questions I received via e-mail and Facebook about my article “The Astrological Zodiac & Music Tonality – Tone Zodiac” about the implementation of the Tone-Zodiac I have decided to write this article to present several ideas on this subject.
I am not an astrologer or astronomer (I am but a musician-composer and sound engineer with a keen interest in this subject). This article is in the first place written for musicians that – like myself – are intriqued by this topic and perhaps for some astrologers it might turn out to be an interesting read as well.
I do welcome additional info, suggestions and corrections (in case of mistakes made in this article). Thank you!
INTRODUCTION (BACKGROUND INFORMATION)
ASTROLOGICAL SYSTEMS AND THE NUMBER OF PLANETS
The planets of our Solar system are key to most astrological systems, but the number of planets “used” differs between Astrological systems.
In “modern” western astrology 10 or more planets are used: the 7 “classic planets” + Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and by some astrologers Ceres, Chiron, Eris, Haumea, and/or Makemake.
In “classic” western astrology 7 “classic planets” (or “Ptolemaic planets”) are used: Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. These planets also represent the 7 days of the week.
Some other astrological systems use different number of planets (in this article we will not go deeper into those systems though):
Chinese astrology works with 5 planets representing the elements: Mercury (water), Venus (metal), Mars (fire), Jupiter (wood) and Saturn (earth).
Hindu astrology works with the 7 “classic planets”: Sun (Surya), Moon (Soma), Mars (Mangala), Mercury (Budha), Jupiter (Brihaspati), Venus (Shukra) and Saturn (Shani) + Rahu and Ketu, a total of 9 planets.
PLANETS AND MUSICAL INTERVAL SYSTEMS
In modern western music a Musical Interval Systems that contains 12 tones is used, the 12-Tone Equal Temperament. For the explanation of this concept I will use 12 signs, 12 planets and 12 tones, but will provide more information for those who want to use less planets (5, 7, 9).
Below a small list with the number of planets, geometric shapes (polygon and polygram), temperament and scale related / used for the astrological systems referred to in this article:
*These scales with 5, 7 or 9 tones per octave could either use tones from the 12-tone Equal Temperament or be used as a microtonal tuning system.
**The Melodic Minor has when ascending raised 6th and 7th tones but descending these tones are no longer raised. You could say that the scale contains two 6ths and 7ths, raising the total from 7 to 9 different tones.
***Scriabin created two 9-tone scales for his composition Opus-67 (semitone steps: 121211112 and 121121121).
| DOCECA (12) | HEPTA (7) | PENTA (5) | NONA / ENNEA (9) |
.png "Dodecagon")  |
  |
  |
  |
If you like to know more about the relationship between music and geometric shapes, then read the article “Music & Geometry“.
SYMBOLS
Not all visitors of this blog have experience with astrology, therefore, here first the symbols of the Zodiac signs used in this article:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Aries | Taurus | Gemini | Cancer | Leo | Virgo | Libra | Scorpio | Sagittarius | Capricorn | Aquarius | Pisces |
… as well as all the planets used in this article:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Sun | Moon | Mercury | Venus | Mars | Jupiter | Saturn | Uranus | Neptune | Pluto | Ceres | Chiron |
If you’re not an astrologer or astronomer and not very familiar with astrology might not recorgnize “Ceres” and “Chiron”. Ceres is a “dwarf-planet” within in the asteroid belt that lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Chiron (not to be mistaken for Pluto’s moon Charon) is orbiting the Sun between Saturn and Uranus.
For the 12-Tone scale example in this article I chose to use Ceres and Chiron, but feel free to select: Eris, Haumea, and/or Makemake instead for your personal musical scale.
If you are “in to” microtonal music and do not intend to perform your composition with traditional 12-Tone instruments, you could for example also include Eris, Haumea, and Makemake and create a 15-tone instead of a 12-tone scale and temperament.
ASTROLOGICAL ASPECTS, SIGN-GROUPS, AND MODES
Astrological aspects do not represent the tones themselves, but the “distances” between tones, in music we use the term intervals for that. Intervals in music have a function and a meaning, (kind of) like aspects have with Astrology. The meaning of the aspects and those of the musical intervals are not all “one-on-one” interchangeable, but could add an extra “layer” to their interpretation.
Read Roel’s World article “The Function Of The Intervals” to get a broader understanding about the function and meaning of the intervals.
“Opposition“, “Trine” and “Square” are commonly used terms by astrologers to define important relative positions of planets. Every aspect relates to a particular number of degrees. Opposition = 180°, the Trine = 120° and the Square = 90°.
Kepler is said to have been impressed – as Ptolemy before him – by the fact that these three most powerful aspects are expressed by the same ratios as the three perfect consonances in music.
| ASPECT | DEGREES | RATIO CIRCLE | RATIO INTERVAL |
|
|
180° | 360:180 = whole circle to half | 2:1 = Octave |
|
|
120° | 360:240 = whole to greater part | 3:2 = Perfect Fifth |
|
|
90° | 360:270 = whole to greater part | 4:3 = Perfect Fourth |
Opposition
SquareYou can read more about Ptolemy, Kepler and others and their view on the tone-zodiac relationship in the article “The Astrological Zodiac & Musical Tonality“.
| POLARITIES | TRIPLICITIES | QUADRUPLICITIES | ||||
| LINE | TRIGON | QUADRAGON | HEXAGON | DODECAGON | DODECAGRAM | SUPERIMPOSED |
| Opposition | Trine | Square | Sextile | Semi-Sextile | Quincunx | |
 180° 6{2} |
 120° 4{3} |
 90° 3{4} |
 60° 2{6} |
 30° t{6} |
 150° t{6/5}={12/5} |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| TRITONES | MAJOR THIRDS & MINOR SIXTHS |
MINOR THIRDS & MAJOR SIXTHS |
MAJOR SECOND & MINOR SEVENTH |
PERFECT FIFTHS & PERFECT FOURTHS |
MINOR SECOND & MAJOR SEVENTH |
ALL ELEVEN INTERVALS IN GEOMETRIC SHAPES TOGETHER. |
OTHER ASPECTS
The “Decile” (36°), “Semisquare” (45°), “Quintile” (72°), “Tridecile” (108°), “Sesquiquartile” (135°) and Biquintile (144°) are aspects that can not be used in the “Zodiac Sign Based” concept (due to the 12-Tone Equal Temperamental restrictions), but are possible intervals to be used in the “Planet Degree Based” (microtonal) concept.
MOTION OF PLANETS: PROGRADE (DIRECT) & RETROGRADE
When a planet is retrograde, its energies are turned inward and becomes more subjective.
In music Major tonalities are considered more “extrovert” while minor tonalities are considered more “introvert“.
It seems logical that the apparent retrograde motion of a planet is represented by the minor relative tonality of the Major tonality that represent it’s prograde (direct) motion.
By Example: Aries is represented by C Major = Prograde (direct) & A minor = Retrograde.
THE CIRCLE OF FIFTHS
The tone + zodiac-sign relationship as a result of layering the Zodiac circle and the Circle of Fifths is (in my opinion) the perfect combination.
The Tone / Tonality and Sign combination I use is as follows (Steiner, Von Gleich Tone Zodiac):
| RUDOLF STEINER | SIGISMUND VON GLEICH |
|
|
| SIGNS |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| MAJOR |
C |
G |
D |
A |
E |
B |
F♯ |
C♯ |
G♯ |
D♯ |
A♯ |
F |
| MINOR |
Am |
Em |
Bm |
F♯m |
C♯m |
G♯m |
D♯m |
A♯m |
Fm |
Cm |
Gm |
Dm |
Above the Major and minor tonalities that “belong” to each Zodiac sign have been listed. Of every chord the root or “tonic” (first degree) is the most important.
By example: Taurus represents the tone of G (tonic) and tonalities of G Major and E minor.
! NOTE: Musicians are used to reading the Circle of Fifths clockwise, but because astrological charts are read counterclockwise, I have turned the direction of the tone-circle (next to the birth charts) around for this article. The Circle of Fifths is there for counterclockwise, thus clockwise the Circle of Fourths (the inverse interval of the Fifth).
If you like to use the Chromatic Circle instead, then keep in mind that several of the tone-sign combinations will be different, they swap places. The implementation as described in this article for music composition will still be the same but the data as provided in this article will not match.
For more information about the history of Tone-Zodiacs and additional information read the article “The Astrological Zodiac & Musical Tonality – Tone Zodiac“
ABOUT THE CHARTS USED IN THIS ARTICLE:
The Zodiac charts used as examples for this article are the charts of myself (Roel). The tones, scales, chords, et cetera you see in this article only apply for my Natal Chart and – unless you were “born under the same stars” – are not “useful” to you musically, except to explain my concept with.
To keep the picture “clean” the Zodiac circles will only display the symbols and degrees of the planets (no nodes, Lilith, et cetera).
The concept will nonetheless work for you too, you just have to do “the math” yourself, on your own chart.
The original chart images were created with the free online service 3horoscopes.com (their ‘design’ is a reasonable match with the design of this blog). That site does not have the option to add additional objects to the horoscope (such as Celes and Chiron), if you like to have their positions calculated then visit astro.com and select Celes and Chiron (or any other “object” under “Additional Objects” when you calculate the free chart.
THE CONCEPT (ASTRO-MUSIC COMPOSITION)
The idea behind the (musical philosophical) concept explained in this article is to create an “audible fingerprint” based on a horoscope chart. This “fingerprint” can then be used for music composition and production. The chart could be a natal chart, or perhaps if you like to write a special composition for a particular date (like a wedding ceremony).
Key “components” for this concept are: the Zodiac signs, the planets of our Solar system and a musical interval system (+Temperament).
COSMIC EXPANSE
THIS CONCEPT INCLUDES
TWO “ZONES:
The COSMIC EXPANSE
that encompasses
the ZODIAC SIGNS.
The SOLAR SECTOR
that embodies the planets of
the SOLAR SYSTEM.
“As Above, So Below”
SOLAR SECTOR
COSMIC SCALE
Every constellation represents to a tone.
SOLAR SCALE
Every planet represents to a tone.
COSMIC CHORD
HARMONY
Some tones of these scales occur in more chords then others. With the most occurring tones a chord can be created that “harmonizes” with all.
SOLAR CHORD
COSMIC TONE
TONAL CENTER
The most dominant (most often occurring) tone is the tonal center of the chart.
SOLAR TONE
CREATING YOUR OWN TEMPERAMENT
To create your scale / temperament you need to look at the position of the planets. In what Zodiac sign section of the chart we find them? And how do you ‘convert’ position to tone frequency?
This is an original concept by Roel Hollander and falls under the following copyright license:
