Eclipse Music

part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | part 5 | part 6 | listen

Knowing Wendy Carlos's interest in solar eclipses, I set about looking for music related to the phenomenon. Ideally, out-of-copyright music that we could ~~plagiarize~~ recontextualize with impunity.

There's not much. Ignoring the obvious pop songs (Bonnie Tyler, Pink Floyd, Soundgarden...), the best resource I found is Stanford's page of music about the sun. There is so much interesting stuff on that page that I almost feel a concept album coming on, but the only bit that actually mentions an eclipse is Handel's Samson Oratorio.

The best fit, though too obscure for me to find a recording, is some dance music for the 1869 eclipse.

So, Handel it is.