I got the idea for this from a recording by Laurie Spiegel called “Kepler’s Harmony of the Worlds,” which she recorded in 1977 on the GROOVE system at Bell Labs. That system, built around a “room-sized” DDP-224 general purpose computer from Computer Control Corporation, is a story all by itself. Those who are interested can read about Laurie and GROOVE at http://retiary.org/ls/expanding_universe/. (The link is working as of 8 Mar 2017).
Download file (28 MB, 15.8 minutes, 256kbps high fidelity). Produced in Reason 9.2 (Windows 7 Pro), using the Thor polyphonic synthesizer for the sun and nine instances of the Subtractor synthesizer for the planets.
My musical depiction is more loosely derived than Ms. Spiegel’s, since I don’t know the math behind Kepler’s formulas. I suppose I could figure it out, but this is close enough for a hobbyist. A description of the “parameterization process” (i.e., how I derived notes and orbital periods) can be read in this PDF.
Joseph Ervin Jr: Synthesizer Fan 