music of the spheres

American  

noun

1. a music, imperceptible to human ears, formerly supposed to be produced by the movements of the spheres or heavenly bodies.

---

music of the spheres British  

noun

1. the celestial music supposed by Pythagoras to be produced by the regular movements of the stars and planets

---

Etymology

Origin of music of the spheres

First recorded in 1600–10

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

music of the spheres

Overhead, a stylized starry sky—gold against deep blue—illustrates the Pythagorean idea of the music of the spheres.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 30, 2026

Never before has humanity reached out to so deliberately strike such a lasting chord in the music of the spheres.

From Scientific American ● Dec. 19, 2022

In Anne Marchand’s mixed-media abstractions, the music of the spheres is a sort of free jazz.

From Washington Post ● Sep. 23, 2021

Wallace Berman visualized the music of the spheres emanating from transistor radios, which he printed on a copier machine.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 24, 2015

Greek theorists called the orbiting motions they observed in the night sky ‘the music of the spheres’.

From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall