Augustine’s De Musica in the 21st Century Music Classroom

Abstract

Augustine's De musica is all that remains of his ambitious plan to write a cycle of works describing each of the liberal arts in terms of Christian faith and is actually unfinished; whereas the six books extant today primarily examine rhythm, Augustine intended to write about melody also. The sixth book of De musica was better known in late Antiquity and the Middle Ages than the first five, and it takes up philosophical questions of aesthetics related to the proportionate ordering discernable throughout creation. After a brief introduction summarizing De musica's content and its importance in subsequent Christian writings, my presentation outlines and explains how I have used this document in my own music classes. For example, my students learn that a vital notion in Augustine's writings, and in Neoplatonism more broadly, is the spiritual benefit of academic study. That is, through study of music, one gains insight into the created order, but, more importantly, one's soul is strengthened and trained to perceive higher realities of the cosmos such as the ordering of the planetary spheres and the progression of celestial hierarchies, which span the spiritual distance from God to humanity.

Momentum in music: Musical succession as physical motion.

“…Rothfarb (2001, p. 927) points out that “ever since ancient times authors have identified motion as a functional aspect of music.” Perhaps the most famous example is the so-called “music of the spheres” in which Kepler in Harmonices Mundi attempted to connect planetary motion with numerical ratios of musical intervals (Balbi, 2008). St. Augustine in Da Musica defined music as “scientia bene modulani,” which translates as “knowledge of correct movement” (MacInnis, 2015), and Rameau’s Treatise on Harmony refers to “collisions” of sounds (Christiansen, 2004). More recently, Shove and Repp (1995) concluded music can represent natural forms of motion, Clarke (2001, 2005) concluded the relationship between music and motion provides an important part of music’s impact and meaning, Eitan and Granot (2006) considered how music was associated with bodily movement, and Phillips-Silver (2009) concluded a link between music and movement was pervasive in human experience.…”