Ch. Strosetzki (Editor, Contributor), & 18 more, Harmony and Rhythm of the Universe : Interdisciplinary Explorations from 1500 to the Present, Rochester, University of Rochester Press, 2026, 352 p. – ISBN :
An interdisciplinary journey through history, science, and art—exploring how harmony and rhythm have shaped our understanding of the cosmos and ourselves.
What do a medieval board game, a mystic dancer, a stroke survivor, and the orbit of Jupiter have in common ? All are part of the long human search for harmony and rhythm - principles that have shaped music, mathematics, architecture, medicine, theology, and cosmology across millennia.
Harmony and Rhythm of the Universe : Interdisciplinary Explorations from 1500 to the Present brings together physicists, astronomers, neuroscientists, mathematicians, musicians, historians, and theologians in a richly interdisciplinary dialogue. From Pythagoras and Plato to Kepler and Einstein, from Renaissance Europe to modern neuroscience, this volume traces how two deceptively simple concepts have proven endlessly generative—capable of connecting the movements of celestial bodies to the rhythms of the human heartbeat, and the proportions of a cathedral façade to the intervals of a musical scale.
Rather than offering a linear history, the book demonstrates that harmony and rhythm are living, contested, and evolving ideas. Past and present speak to one another here : ancient intuitions illuminate new discoveries, and contemporary science casts fresh light on centuries-old thought. For anyone curious about the deep connections between art, science, and the human experience of the universe, this volume is an invitation to listen more carefully—to the world, and to ourselves.
Christoph Strozetzski is Professor of Romance Literature at the University of Münster, Germany, and specializes in the history of ideas – Maria Victoria Curto Hernandez is a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer at the Complutense University of Madrid, Spain.
