I’m a nerd who loves music, which means “A Glorious Dawn,” the video created with pitch-corrected clips from Carl Sagan’s “Cosmos,” is one of those things on the Internet that seems to have been made just for me. So when I saw that the video had blossomed into a whole project called The Symphony of Science, I jumped at the chance to ask Boswell for an interview. He graciously agreed.

Today would have been Sagan’s 75^th birthday — a perfect time take a look at how this project came to be and what’s coming up in the Symphony’s future. If you haven’t seen “A Glorious Dawn” or “We Are All Connected,” I highly recommend them — they’re embedded in this post as well.

Tracy V. Wilson: What inspired you to turn science programs into music, and are there other intersections between science and art that have influenced you?
John Boswell: Being a huge fan of Carl Sagan, I was initially influenced by several mash-ups from his audio book, “Pale Blue Dot,” that have been online for some time now. Being an avid musician and science enthusiast, I was further inspired after seeing how auto-tune technology could be put to use tuning normal speech, via videos by the Gregory Brothers and DJ Steve Porter. My familiarity with those programs led me to experiment with tuning Sagan, which evolved into the song/video “A Glorious Dawn.” The hugely positive reception that video had, combined with the amount of fun I had in the creation process, was the inspiration for the formal project, Symphony of Science. The second installment has been received just as well, and a third is already in the works.

TVW: Can you briefly tell me what it takes for you to turn spoken footage into a music video?
JB: The process starts with sifting through science programs for profound quotes from selected scientists. I create an instrumental backing track, then take the spoken segments and tune them to a melody with an auto-tune program. After trial and error, enough clips are tuned and assembled to constitute a full song’s worth of lyrics, and the composition is finalized after the arrangement phase. The video is the last step; the visuals and spoken word clips are synced up after the song has been finished.

TVW: Do you plan to continue to use pitch correction and existing footage throughout this project, or do you have other ideas in mind for future songs?
JB: Pitch correction will probably be central to future installments of the project; it has an oddly charming effect and makes the integration between the messages and the music more tightly sealed. For the next entry, I have lightened up a bit on tuning and foregone a fully pitch-corrected lyrical base, but it doesn’t stray too far from the spirit of the first two. It will be essential to find a balance between distorting the original speech cadence and leaving the original samples intact. My goal is to never sacrifice the message for the music; I place a lot of importance on the songs but I also want the lyrics to come across as profoundly as possible.

TVW: “A Glorious Dawn” has gotten almost a million and a half views on YouTube. Why do you think this video is resonating so well with people?
The success A Glorious Dawn has had was not foreseen by me, but hearing feedback from viewers has shed a lot of light on the reasons for its popularity. I believe it is mainly due to the broadly-appealing intersection of thought-provoking messages with catchy music and fascinating visuals. The video appeals to people in different ways; some come for the music and stay for the science, some vice-versa, and some appreciate the integration of the two. There is something in the video for almost everybody, which I think is responsible for its widespread publicity.

TVW: “A Glorious Dawn” and “We Are All Connected” are both so uplifting, through both their music and their lyrics. How will future videos compare in terms of their tone and spirit, and how does this compare to your other work?
“A Glorious Dawn” and “We Are All Connected” have indeed been very uplifting; at the core of these scientific philosophies is a really positive outlook on humanity, so there is no shortage of uplifting source material. However, my next entry will be more ominous, both musically and lyrically, as it explores themes of our relation to the rest of the universe. I think it’s really important to cater the music directly to the themes of each piece, and there is something moving about the themes I’m working with right now, which call for a more introspective, almost melancholy musical approach. Future entries will explore different themes, and in turn, different musical styles. I hope to add adequate diversity to the project to continually provide listeners with fresh material.

TVW: When I watch your videos, I’m thinking about astronomy, physics, the universe … but I’m also thinking about how music itself is made out of physics and math. Was reminding people that music is science part of your original intent with this project, or is it a fortunate side effect?
Reminding people that music is science was not part of my original intent, but it is definitely a fortunate side effect and something that I hope many people realize. It is really fun to admire how science itself has made these songs possible — the technology behind pitch correction software was originally pioneered by an engineer working in seismology. Not only has science provided us with the technologies to make these kinds of songs and videos, but music itself, especially music theory, has a scientific aspect to it. It would make me happy to know that some people come to this realization, among others, through these videos.

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I’m not the first at HowStuffWorks to delve into this series. ScienceStuff’s Robert Lamb also blogged about “A Glorious Dawn” in his Space Music series. And if you want to celebrate Sagan’s birthday by taking a second (or first look) at “Cosmos,” you can watch the whole series on Hulu for free. I watched a little over the weekend and was amazed at how well it’s held up after almost 30 years.

More on the world of Carl Sagan at Who said it: Carl Sagan or Michael Crichton?
How SETI Works
How the Scientific Method Works