The latest episode of Nature’s Audiofile podcast (confusingly muddled in with their regular podcast feed) is about the history of science and music, starting with Galileo Galilei’s father, the lute maker Vincenzo Galilei, and continues through associations between Rennaissance interpretations of Greek ideas of music and astronomy.
The Galilei family, before their most famous son, was central to musical life in their time: Vincenzo was instrumental in the early development of opera and acoustical theory, and Galileo’s brother and son, Michelagnolo and Vincenzo Gamba, were virtuoso lutenists. But the podcast argues that Vincenzo’s acoustic experiements may have been hugely influential on his son’s approach to experimentation.
Though I’m skeptical of some of the other claims in the podcast, it’s interesting and well-produced. Worth a listen.