In "Music of life: the creation of Middle-earth," Sarah Rose compares Tolkien's "Ainulindale" to four other creation myths: the Norse "Voluspa," the Finnish "Kalevala," Pythagoras's "The
Harmony of the Spheres" (which was taken up by Augustine and Boethius), and the Bible's book of Genesis.
Clarke refers to Plato, whose musical thinking was heavily influenced by Pythagoras's systematic theory of music, the so-called "
harmony of the spheres." Pythagoras's theory that the planets themselves emit tones that harmonize with one another has been influential in music theory from the Classics through the Renaissance and was used as the theoretical basis for musical white and black magic as well as Christian liturgy (cf.
The tracks are "Nature's Lullaby" (1:53), "I Love the Dark", (2:44), "Shooting Stars" (2:20), "Galaxy Song" (2:47), "Gravity" (3:41), "Nocturnal" (1:41), "Man In The Moon" (2:58), "Earth's Satellite" (3:37), "Pluto" (2:12), "Aurora Borealis" (2:17), "Shadow" (2:12), "Neptune" Lullaby" (2:48), "Safe at Home" (3:51), "
Harmony of the Spheres" (4:03), and "So Long to the Day" (1:51).