speeds would have to differ from the ideal values to compensate. This change also had the benefit of helping Kepler retroactively explain why the regular solids encompassing each planet were slightly imperfect. Philosophers posited that the Creator liked variation in the celestial music. Kepler's books are well-represented in the Library of Sir Thomas Browne, who also expressed a belief in the music of the spheres: "For there is a musicke where-ever there is a harmony, order or proportion; and thus farre we may maintain the musick of the spheres; for those well ordered motions, and regular paces, though they give no sound unto the eare, yet to the understanding they strike a note most full of harmony. Whatsoever is harmonically composed, delights in harmony." Orbital resonance In celestial mechanics, orbital resonance occurs when orbiting bodies exert regular, periodic gravitational influence on each other, usually because their orbital periods are related by a ratio of small integers. This has been referred to as a "modern take" on the theory of musica universalis. This idea has been further explored in a musical animation, created by an artist at the European Southern Observatory, of the planetary system TOI-178, which has five planets locked in a chain of orbital resonances. Cultural influence William Shakespeare makes reference to the music of the spheres in The Merchant of Venice: In the 1910s, Danish composer Rued Langgaard composed a pioneering orchestral work titled Music of the Spheres. Paul Hindemith also made use of the concept in his 1957 opera, Die Harmonie der Welt ("The Harmony of the World"), based upon the life of Johannes Kepler. A number of other modern compositions have been inspired by the concept of musica universalis. Among these are Harmony of the Spheres by Neil Ardley, Music of the Spheres by Mike Oldfield, The Earth Sings Mi Fa Mi by The Receiving End of Sirens, Music of the Spheres by Ian Brown, "Cosmogony" by Björk, and the Coldplay album Music of the Spheres. Music of the Spheres was also the title of a companion piece to the video game Destiny, composed by Martin O'Donnell, Michael Salvatori, and Paul McCartney. See also Asteroseismology Gravitational waves Plato's Timaeus This Is My Father's World Titius–Bode law Sacred geometry Shabd Notes Sources Further reading Martineau, John (2002). A Little Book of Coincidence in the Solar System. Gardener's Books. External links "The Music of the Spheres". In Our