Astronomy Domine


"Astronomy Domine" is a song by the English rock band Pink Floyd. The song, written and composed by the original vocalist/guitarist Syd Barrett, was the first track on their first album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. The lead vocal was sung by Barrett and the keyboard player Richard Wright. Its working title was "Astronomy Domine ". "Domine" is a word frequently used in Gregorian chants.

Music

Sounds and references

It was seen as Pink Floyd's first foray into space rock, although band members later disparaged this term. The song opens with the voice of one of their managers at the time, Peter Jenner, reading the names of planets, stars and galaxies through a megaphone. A barely audible line, "Pluto was not discovered till 1930", can be heard in the megaphonic mix. Barrett's Fender Esquire emerges and grows louder. At 0:19, a rapid beeping sound is heard. At 0:26, Nick Mason's drum fills begin and Barrett plays the enigmatic introductory figure. Keyboard player Richard Wright's Farfisa organ is mixed into the background. Barrett's incantatory lyrics about space support the theme in the song, mentioning the planets Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune as well as Uranian moons Oberon, Miranda and Titania, and Saturn's moon Titan. Barrett and Wright provide lead vocals. Roger Waters' bass guitar line, Wright's Farfisa organ and Barrett's slide guitar then dominate, with Jenner's megaphone recitation re-emerging from the mix for a time.

Music progression

The verse has an unusual chord progression, all in major chords: E, E♭, G and A. The chorus is entirely chromatic, descending directly from A to D on guitar, bass guitar and falsetto singing, down one semitone every three beats. Strangest of all may be the introduction, in which Barrett takes an ordinary open E major chord and moves the fretted notes down one semitone, resulting in an E♭ major chord superimposed onto an open E minor chord, fretting E♭ and B♭ notes along with the open E, G, B and high-E strings of the guitar; the G functions both as major third to the E♭ chord and minor third to the E chord. In the live version heard on Ummagumma, the post-Barrett band, with David Gilmour on guitar, normalised the introduction into straight E and E♭ major chords, also normalising the timing of the introduction, but, beginning in 1994, began performing a more faithful version, which Gilmour carried into his solo career.
Barrett's Fender Esquire is played through a Binson echo machine, creating psychedelic delay effects. The track is the band's only overt "space rock" song, though a group-composed, abstract instrumental was titled "Interstellar Overdrive". Waters, in an interview with Nick Sedgewick, described "Astronomy Domine" as "the sum total" of Barrett's writing about space, "yet there's this whole fucking mystique about how he was the father of it all".

Alternative and live versions

It was a popular live piece, regularly included in the band's concerts. It is the first track on the live side of the album Ummagumma, released in 1969. This version reflects the band's more progressive style of that era. The song is extended by including the first verse twice, and the instrumental middle section, before becoming louder again by the last verse. The lead vocals are shared between Gilmour and Wright. While Wright sang the higher harmony in the studio version, Gilmour sang the higher harmony live. The Ummagumma version can also be found on the American release of A Nice Pair, a compilation album released in 1973.
It was dropped from the live sets in mid-1971, but reappeared as the first song in some sets on the band's 1994 tour. The last time the song was performed with Waters was on 20 June 1971 at the Palaeur in Rome, Italy. A version from a concert in Miami appears as the B-side on the band's "Take It Back" single, and a version from one of the London concerts appears on the live album Pulse. Gilmour played the song at some of his appearances during his solo 2006 tour, again sharing the lead vocal with fellow Floyd member Wright. He said of playing the song live for the first time in over 20 years:
The track is also on the 2001 Pink Floyd compilation album, .
The Pulse version reverts to the original 4-minute length, with Gilmour and Wright taking lead vocals as in Ummagumma. This was the only song on the 1994 tour with Gilmour, Mason and Wright performing without backing musicians, with only Guy Pratt adding bass guitar and vocals.
The song was also played by Gilmour and his solo band at the Abbey Road Studios sessions, which has been released as part of a CD/DVD On an Island package. "Astronomy Domine" was performed during the last few dates of Gilmour's On an Island tour, and is on his Remember That Night and Live in Gdańsk DVDs.
Gilmour has inserted the song in the setlist of his last solo Rattle That Lock world tour.
The song was played by Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets in 2018.

Music video

In 1968, Pink Floyd travelled to Belgium where they filmed a lip-synched promotional film for "Astronomy Domine", as well as "See Emily Play", "The Scarecrow", "Apples and Oranges", "Paint Box", "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" and "Corporal Clegg". Barrett does not appear in these films, as he had been replaced by Gilmour who lip-synced Barrett's voice in the "Astronomy Domine" video.

Personnel

The Piper at the Gates of Dawn version
Ummagumma live version
Pulse live version
with:
Live in Gdańsk live version
with: