Thursday, May 2, 2019

AstroCappella


I've had such a fun time listening to "AstroCappella" music by an amazing group called The Chromatics, who recorded their first CD with the help of a NASA IDEAS grant (Initiative to Develop Education through Astronomy and Space Science).

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, where the a-capella group originated, still features the singers on their website, where you can hear a lively version of The Sun Song...

The Chromatics

Left to Right: Padi = AstroPhysicist Soprano
Karen = Solar Scientist Alto & Mezzo
Alan = AstroPhysicist Tenor
Barry = Architect Tenor
Deb = Database Designer Soprano
John = Satellite Astronomer Baritone

I also searched around YouTube (a bit of a trick, since there is also an Oregonian Synth-Punk band with the same name), but I found the AstroCap YT Channel, which features a few clips of the spacey-group's live performances.

The Chromatics CD Covers
This harmonious form of musical astronomy was developed by the members of the Chromatics for education and public outreach, and all of their tunes are "astronomically correct"! My favorite was their humorous "Bad Hair Day" -- but they also cover comets, asteroids, Mars exploration, the phases of the moon, the habitable zone of our solar system, gamma rays and even a Historical Overview of Telescopes in the "HST-Bop." Highly entertaining!

They were even commissioned by the Johannes Kepler Project to write a special song for the International Year of Astronomy in 2009 called "Shoulders of Giants", which detailed Galileo's first observations of space through his newly-developed telescope in 1609.

Chromatics Christmas CD
They even have a Christmas CD! I purchased this entire set on iTunes along with some of their other selections, and I'm rather partial to "Pachelbel's Tantrum" ;)

Join their Facebook Fan Page or follow the Chromatics Twitter Feed to see when and where they conduct public performances.

Or, check out their AstroCapella Project to see how you can make the most of "the marriage of music & astronomy" to entertain at schools or introduce unique entertainment to your science, museum or planetarium public event!