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"The Harmony of All Things": Music, Soul, and Cosmos in the Writings of John Scottus Eriugena

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Digital Collections @ Dordt Faculty Work Comprehensive List 2-2014 "The Harmony of All Things": Music, Soul, and Cosmos in the Writings of John Scottus Eriugena John MacInnis Dordt College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcollections.dordt.edu/faculty_work Part of the Music Commons, and the Philosophy Commons Recommended Citation MacInnis, J. (2014). "The Harmony of All Things": Music, Soul, and Cosmos in the Writings of John Scottus Eriugena. Retrieved from https://digitalcollections.dordt.edu/faculty_work/70 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Collections @ Dordt. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Work Comprehensive List by an authorized administrator of Digital Collections @ Dordt. For more information, please contact [email protected]. "The Harmony of All Things": Music, Soul, and Cosmos in the Writings of John Scottus Eriugena Abstract In his prodigious philosophical work Periphyseon, the foremost intellectual of the ninth century, John Scottus Eriugena (ca. 800–877 CE), defined musica broadly and in a way that solicits interdisciplinary applications: “Music is the discipline discerning by the light of reason the harmony of all things in natural proportions which are either in motion or at rest.” In this dissertation, I trace resonances of the ars musica in Eriugena’s writings using selections from his three greatest works: Periphyseon, his glosses on Martianus Capella’s textbook De Nuptiis, and his commentary over Pseudo-Dionysius’s treatise on the Celestial Hierarchy of Angels. Beginning with his comments on Capella, I present ways in which Eriugena’s reflections on music as a liberal art intersect with his discussions of the cosmos and the human soul. For Eriugena and earlier Neoplatonists, the consideration of quantity related to quantity in ratio was the proper province of musica, and this natural ordering corresponded to the overall coherence observed throughout the cosmos. That is, the “natural proportions” in Eriugena’s definition of music included all things that can be studied, visible or invisible. Although some previous musicological considerations of Eriugena’s writings have sought insights on performance practices of the ninth century (e.g., the organicum melos question), most have dealt almost exclusively with his description of the harmony of the spheres; this project extends these discussions and explores a fundamental element in Platonic thought neglected in previous studies, i.e., music related to the spheres and the human soul. Eriugena’s writings provide a perfect opportunity for such a study. Using my own translation of Eriugena’s glosses on Martianus Capella’s De Nuptiis, I demonstrate how Eriugena’s short treatise on the harmony of the spheres incorporates a discussion on the motions of human souls superimposed upon the planetary system. Furthermore, ix the ordering of the celestial hierarchy of angels emanating from God is itself proportionally organized, in terms of the nature of each angelic hierarchy and how they interact while relaying the divine oracles. In the end, I demonstrate that a unifying theme in Eriugena’s philosophical writings is the need for central, proportionally defined mediators, whether the sun, which modulates the celestial spheres, the mese in the Immutable System of tetrachords, or even specific anksr within the hierarchy of angels. Keywords John Scottus Eriugena, Periphyseon, De Nuptiis, philosophy of music, liberal arts Disciplines Music | Philosophy Comments • A dissertation submitted to the graduate faculty of the College of Music of Florida State University in partial fulfillment for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY • Dr. Charles E. Brewer, Major Professor • © 2014 John MacInnis Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License. This dissertation is available at Digital Collections @ Dordt: https://digitalcollections.dordt.edu/faculty_work/70 FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF MUSIC “THE HARMONY OF ALL THINGS”: MUSIC, SOUL, AND COSMOS IN THE WRITINGS OF JOHN SCOTTUS ERIUGENA By JOHN CHRISTIAN MACINNIS A Dissertation submitted to the College of Music in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2014 Copyright © 2014 John MacInnis All Rights Reserved John Christian MacInnis defended this dissertation on March 7, 2014. The members of the supervisory committee were: Charles E. Brewer Professor Directing Dissertation Robert Romanchuk University Representative Joseph Kraus Committee Member Douglass Seaton Committee Member The Graduate School has verified and approved the above-named committee members, and certifies that the dissertation has been approved in accordance with university requirements. ii This dissertation is dedicated to the glory of God and with loving appreciation to Victoria Lynn MacInnis. MULIEREM FORTEM QUIS INVENIET PROCUL ET DE ULTIMIS FINIBUS PRETIUM EIUS . OS SUUM APERUIT SAPIENTIAE ET LEX CLEMENTIAE IN LINGUA EIUS. PROVERBIA XXXI iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Although I have tried to express my thanks consistently and sincerely to everyone contributing energy and insight towards the completion of this dissertation, the following people should be mentioned formally in print. I thank first the Musicology faculty of the Florida State University College of Music who taught me so much during my years in Tallahassee (2007- 2012). Dr. Michael Bakan, Dr. Charles Brewer, Dr. Michael Broyles, Dr. Frank Gunderson, Dr. Jeffery Kite-Powell, Dr. Benjamin Koen, Dr. Dale Olsen, Dr. Douglass Seaton, and Dr. Denise Von Glahn inspired me constantly with their dedication to the discipline, knowledge, and belief in the power and worth of music scholarship. Dr. Charles Brewer was my guide throughout the dissertation process, and special thanks are due him for its completion, along with the other members of my Supervisory Committee: Dr. Joseph Kraus, Dr. Robert Romanchuk, and Dr. Douglass Seaton. In 2012, I gratefully received an FSU Curtis Mayes Orpheus Fellowship, which funded travel to Munich, Germany, where I had the opportunity to consult Dr. Michael Bernhard and Dr. Calvin Bower at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities. I thank them both for their hospitality, use of the Lexicon Musicum Latinum Medii Aevi and the Commission Library, and, of course, morning coffee. Dr. Bernhard also kindly provided me with a copy of an article by Ernst Waeltner that was helpful in completing Chapter 3. I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Charles Atkinson at a conference on music in the Carolingian world, held in his honor at Ohio State University in 2011. The idea for my project began after reading Dr. Atkinson’s The Critical Nexus: Tone-System, Mode, and Notation in Early Medieval Music, and his encouragement via email has certainly contributed to the iv completion of this dissertation. I met Dr. Mariken Teeuwen at the conference mentioned above, and, since then, I have profited much from her scholarship and recommendations via email. I am grateful for the reduction to my teaching load at Dordt College in 2014 funded by The Andreas Center for Reformed Scholarship and Service that enabled me to complete my dissertation; Dr. John Kok guided me through the application process. Also, my colleagues in the John and Louise Hulst Library at Dordt College deserve my gratitude for their generous support of coffee and interlibrary loans. As for proofreading, I thank Monica McConnel, Anna Visser, and Rianne Van Wingerden. Specialized help was graciously given by Dr. Albert Wolters, who assisted with Greek orthography, and Dr. John Van Dyk, who looked over my Latin translations. More personally, I thank Dr. Bryan Smith for his wisdom, friendship, and words fitly spoken, which confirmed me on the path toward a doctorate in the first place. To my wife, Victoria, and children, Sayward and Alistair, I pledge a lifelong debt of love and appreciation; this work has meant much to me, and my family sacrificed a lot to let me finish it. Finally, I thank my mother, Heather MacInnis, who taught me first to look and yearn for beauty. How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank! Here will we sit, and let the sounds of music Creep in our ears: soft stillness and the night Become the touches of sweet harmony. Sit, Jessica. Look, how the floor of heaven Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold: There’s not the smallest orb which thou behold’st But in his motion like an angel sings, Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins, But whilst this muddy vesture of decay Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it. The Merchant of Venice V.I v TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ...................................................................................................................................... viii 1. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................... 1 The Carolingian Renovatio ............................................................................................... 3 Significant Authors and Authorities during the Ninth Century ...................................... 12 The Liberal Arts during the Ninth Century ..................................................................... 17 Neoplatonism as Philosophical Context for the Liberal Arts ......................................... 28 2. THE WORKS OF JOHN SCOTTUS ERIUGENA ...............................................................
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