John Boswell has created something remarkable in the art of composition: The Symphony of Science. 

This video is my personal favorite, really a beautiful piece, I especially like the digital piano arpeggio just before the chorus. The hook is lovely too. 

A close contender is “We Are All Connected”: Bill Nye’s melody is well-crafted. 

Something I personally find fascinating about the Symphony of Science recordings is that ideas for the future of science for humanity are shared with new audiences through popular music technology, the kind that is itself futuristic. Its sounds are considered by many to be “robotic,” but the science of auto-tune (and its prevalence in popular music) is something that not long ago was musical science-fiction. The ideas of Carl Sagan take on a new kind of scientific aesthetic as his digitally manipulated voice sings about the Milky Way and Mars over drum machines and synthesizers. 

Boswell explains on his site:

The goal of the project is to bring scientific knowledge and philosophy to the public, in a novel way, through the medium of music. Science and music are two passions of mine that I aim to combine, in a way that is intended to bring a meaningful message to listeners, while simultaneously providing an enjoyable musical experience. 

The interesting thing here is that music andscience, Boswell’s two passions, are one and the same, and Boswell’s amalgamation emphasizes that. The pleasure that can come from listening to the SoS videos may vary, I think. I’ve seen people begin to laugh when these videos begin because auto-tuning is so often associated with farce. But the message of the videos and Boswell’s approach to the construction of the musical text in the videos reveals beauty instead of humor. Some may simply not like the songs because of a predisposed aversion to electronic or downtempo music. Pleasure is something that deserves the attention of one or a few dedicated posts which will follow this discussion. It is Boswell’s visual and musical compositions that sparked my thoughts on pleasure and music. 

I recently asked Boswell what he believed makes music pleasing. He had this to say:

Based on my limited experience making music and the intuition I have gathered about what makes it good, combined with what I have read on the subject, I would have to say that good music/songs/albums all strike the right balance between appealing to expectations and offering something out of the ordinary.  I think this applies to any genre and the “out of the ordinary” can be sonic qualities, harmonic progressions, melodies, or anything of the sort.  Anything else I consider personal taste for what’s good or not.  

Personal taste, subjectivity, context, time and place, these are all properties that make the appreciation of an album so interesting to me. The above video has over 4 million views, so there are 4 million+ people who were interested and/or entertained by it. Boswell’s opinion of “good” or “bad” music and how it relates to personal taste is interesting when considering the amount of views his SoS videos get. What is it about a song that appeals to over 4 million people’s unique tastes and perspectives? 

You can experience The Symphony of Science here, or visit SoS’s YouTube channel here.

Boswell also makes electronic music under the name Colorpulse.  

A friend of mine was talking about Phil Collins’ “Face Value” (1981) and mentioned that he believed it had a reputation of being a good album. He said something interesting about reputation and albums: 

Even if you haven’t heard the album, you know it’s good because someone told you it was.

This was my personal experience with Phoenix’s “Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix” (2009). I watched this series of videos w/ commentary by Phoenix and their producer for the album, Phillippe Zdar. This is an interesting commentary on the intention of allowing chance during the creation of an album. More of these videos will be posted as they pertain to the discussion.