The Harmony of the Spheres: A Sourcebook of the Pythagorean Tradition in Music

Barlow, Jon K.; Godwin, Joscelyn; Lindley, Mark; Turner-Smith, R. F.

doi:10.2307/898329

Cited by 4 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…The golden ratio would be one such instance, widely observed in phenomena often deemed attractive, such as the spiral-like configurations of seashells and galaxies (Green, 1995). Or, switching mediums, ever since Pythagoras, musicologists have analyzed the harmonic properties of musical intervals according to precise invariant mathematical ratios (Godwin, 1992) or the way major and minor keys are linked to positive and negative emotionality, respectively (Koelsch & Siebel, 2005). The "object" might then be the properties potentially signified by aesthetic phenomena.…”

Section: Approaching Aestheticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The appeal of aesthetics: A cross-cultural lexical analysis.

Lomas¹

2023

Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts

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Art and aesthetics have long been understood as central to human well-being and flourishing. However, the academic study of these phenomena has been critiqued for its Western-centricity and general lack of cross-cultural engagement. As such, this article aims to broaden our appreciation of the contours of aesthetics by engaging with relevant “untranslatable” words (i.e., without an exact equivalent in English), thereby enriching our conceptual map of this arena. Over 300 relevant terms from 24 languages were located and analyzed using grounded theory. Four main metathemes were identified, each with several themes: stimuli (spanning the sensory modalities of sight, sound, taste, smell, touch, and the mind), qualities (harmony, naturalness, simplicity, prettiness, and shock), dynamics (appreciation, understanding, and inspiration), and modes (modalities, movements, and techniques). The article therefore adds to our understanding of this vital arena of human well-being and flourishing, though, as ever, further work is needed.

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Section: Approaching Aestheticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The appeal of aesthetics: A cross-cultural lexical analysis.

Lomas¹

2023

Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts

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“…The foundations of musical consonance and dissonance have received scholarly interest since the days of Pythagoras in ancient Greece [1], yet there is still no consensus as to whether they are a biological universal or culture specific. The notion of consonance and dissonance is fundamental to (Western) music theory, but there is still no fully accepted consensus of exactly what constitutes this categorical perception of musical sounds.…”

Section: Psychoacoustic Vs Cultural Explanations Of Consonance and Di...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Culture influences conscious appraisal of, but not automatic aversion to, acoustically rough musical intervals

Armitage,

Lahdelma,

Eerola

et al. 2023

PLoS ONE

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There is debate whether the foundations of consonance and dissonance are rooted in culture or in psychoacoustics. In order to disentangle the contribution of culture and psychoacoustics, we considered automatic responses to the perfect fifth and the major second (flattened by 25 cents) intervals alongside conscious evaluations of the same intervals across two cultures and two levels of musical expertise. Four groups of participants completed the tasks: expert performers of Lithuanian Sutartinės, English speaking musicians in Western diatonic genres, Lithuanian non-musicians and English-speaking non-musicians. Sutartinės singers were chosen as this style of singing is an example of ‘beat diaphony’ where intervals of parts form predominantly rough sonorities and audible beats. There was no difference in automatic responses to intervals, suggesting that an aversion to acoustically rough intervals is not governed by cultural familiarity but may have a physical basis in how the human auditory system works. However, conscious evaluations resulted in group differences with Sutartinės singers rating both the flattened major as more positive than did other groups. The results are discussed in the context of recent developments in consonance and dissonance research.

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“…De musica is a unique work -especially in the context of antiquity. By the time it was composed there was, of course, already a long tradition of reflection on music, starting with thinkers such as Pythagoras (see Godwin 1992), as well as Plato and Aristotle (see Stamou 2002). Music also formed part of the core curriculum of the seven liberal arts in which Augustine was trained and which -as mentioned here -he intended to explore in a series of writings (see Clair 2017:25ff;Panti 2020:450).…”

Section: De Musicamentioning

confidence: 99%

Augustine on rhythm (or how to do theology in conversation with the arts)

Havenga

2023

Verbum et Ecclesia

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This essay reflects theologically on rhythm by turning to the North African church father Augustine, specifically his work De musica. It begins by briefly referring to recent theological work on rhythm, before introducing Augustine and discussing the role music played during and after his conversion to Christianity. This is followed by an exposition of De musica: a work which comprises six books. It is shown how the first five books offer a comprehensive rhythmic theory, which is then followed – in Book 6 – by a theological discussion of the topic. Finally, the essay briefly explores what we can learn from Augustine’s text, not only in terms of rhythm but also about theological engagements with the arts more generally.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: As part of the larger interdisciplinary conversation between theology and the arts, this essay focuses on the theological dimensions and implications of rhythm by turning to what could probably be viewed as one of Christian theology’s first interdisciplinary texts, namely Augustine’s De musica. Interdisciplinarity thus stands at the very heart of the contribution.

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The Harmony of the Spheres: A Sourcebook of the Pythagorean Tradition in Music

Cited by 4 publications

References 0 publications

The appeal of aesthetics: A cross-cultural lexical analysis.

The appeal of aesthetics: A cross-cultural lexical analysis.

Culture influences conscious appraisal of, but not automatic aversion to, acoustically rough musical intervals

Augustine on rhythm (or how to do theology in conversation with the arts)

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