Star Music: the Ancient Idea of Cosmic Music As a Philosophical Paradox
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Heyning Canterbury Christ Church University Thesis submitted for the Degree of Master of Philosophy 2017 2 Table of contents 1. Itroductio: the paradox of star usic .................................................................... 4 Star music - Cosmic music - Silent music - Reflexivity - Consciousness - Musicking - Relevance - Unfolding 2. The Pythagorean roots ............................................................................................... 15 Pythagorean philosophy - Harmonics - Pythagorean philosophy of number - Harmonia - Soul and sky - Musical healing - Archytas and Plato - The Pythagorean roots 3. Platos usical creatio .............................................................................................. 38 Plato the Pythagorean - Timaeus - The soul of the world - Re-reading the Timaeus - Time - The human soul - The Chôra - The Good - Music - Plato's musical creation 4. The musical cosmos of antiquity ................................................................................ 54 Greek and Roman music - Iamblichus' theurgic music - Macrocosm - As above, so below - The ascent to heavenly harmony - Poimandres - The revival of Pythagoreanism - Nicomachus - Aristides Quitilianus - Ptolemy - Tone Zodiac - Plotinus - Theurgy - Boethius 5. Medieval heavenly harmony ...................................................................................... 71 Theophany - The Renaissance of the twelfth century - Plainchant - Hildegard of Bingen - Polyphony 6. The musica mundana of the Italian Renaissance ....................................................... 78 The new man - The new artist - The new music - The new tuning - Platonism reborn -The singing philosopher - Planetary music - A new sun - Janus 7. The absolute music of the Romantic era .................................................................... 94 A new universe - Absolute Music - A new paradigm - Modernism - Nietzsche's premature birth - Scriabin - The esoteric echo -Tavener and the sacred 8. The rediscovery of the world soul ............................................................................ 110 The music of earth and sea and sky - Cosmic Consciousness - Out of your head - Opening the doors of perception - Pan returns - Towards new music - A mysterious new universe - The soul of the world 9. Pythagoras for the New Age ..................................................................................... 127 The future of the past - Pythagoras the avatar - Nothing new - Old is new - Pop star music - One flash of light, but no smoking pistol - Sweet surrender - Holism: all and everything - Non-dualism - The mother of sound - New Age Star Music 10. Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 145 Reference list ................................................................................................................ 150 Appendix 1: Literature review ...................................................................................... 164 Appendix 2: Creative projects ...................................................................................... 166 Number of words of the thesis: 59.360 © Eduard Heyning - [email protected] 3 Abstract This thesis regards the ancient Pythagorean-Platonic idea of heavenly harmony as a philosophical paradox: stas ae silet, usi is ot. The idea of sta usi otais several potential opposites, including imagination and sense perception, the temporal and the eternal, transcendence and theophany, and others. The idea of sta usi as a paradox can become a gateway to a different understanding of the universe, and a vehicle for a shift to a new – and yet very ancient – form of consciousness. The ancient Greeks had a holistic form of consciousness, which was continually intermingling with a transpersonal dimension. This ancient state of consciousness was related to a musical understanding of the world, the Pythagorean-Platonic experience of the universe as an ordered cosmos. My research is approached from two angles, namely from the history of ideas and from musicianship, exploring how music is reflected in the world of thought. By reflexive re- reading of the sources, new insights into the nature of musical consciousness are explored. The idea of sta usi can be found throughout the history of music and thought in the West, including Platos oks and that of other ancient philosophers, through the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Romantic era and the twentieth century up to contemporary New Age music. As a olusio, the paado of sta usi is oeted to an experience of a shared transcendent meaning of music, which can be present in the moment of a musical performance. Star music is a living paradox. 4 1. Introduction: the paradox of star music Pythagoras conceived that the first attention that should be given to men should be addressed to the senses, as when one perceives beautiful figures and forms, or hears beautiful rhythms and melodies. Consequently he laid down that the first eruditio as that hih susists though usis elodies ad hths, and from these he obtained remedies of human manners and passions, and restored the pristine harmony of the faculties of the soul. (Iamblichus Life of Pythagoras, 15; Guthrie 1987, 72) Both music and philosophy have always attracted me. At university, I studied medieval Platonism, and at the conservatoire I learned to play the saxophone. Although they were mutually exclusive realms of activity, it seemed to me that philosophy and music were ultimately about the same thing, namely an awakening to a true self.1 Perhaps this idea was nourished by growing up in the 1960s, when music was conveying a strong message of a new form of self-awareness.2 Later in life, I felt that this intuition demanded a thorough investigation. For that, I needed both intellectual reflection and artistic practice. I looked for music that expressed ideas, and ideas that expressed music. The latter I recognized in the usial philosophy of the ancient world, founded on the insights of the philosophers Pythagoras and Plato.3 At first sight, these ideas may seem out of date; yet I will argue that, when re-read in a reflexive way, ancient philosophy can be a gateway to a new, musical understanding of the universe. This thesis is an exploration of the relevance of ancient philosophy for a practice of music, which aims to bring about a new – and yet very ancient - form of musical self-consciousness. However, it is questionable whether such an experience can be adequately expressed in words. 4 1 On aakeig, see Steve Taylor (2017) The Leap. The Psychology of Spiritual Awakening. 2 On the music of the 1960s, see Peter Hamel (1978) Through Music to the Self. 3 With the aiet old I refer to the age of classical antiquity, from the eighth century BCE to the sixth century CE. This roughly coincides with the practice of Hellenic music (West 1992, 384). As this thesis takes as its point of departure the Greek philosophy of music, it is focussed on the Western world, excluding theories in other regions. In the Indian, Chinese and Japanese traditions there are very interesting parallels to the developments in the West, to which I will sometimes refer, signalling the global nature of these ideas. Because Jewish and Arabic theories and music do not originate in Greek culture, they are also beyond my focus. 4 As musicologist David Clarke puts it: desiptio of usi a e deeptie as it elates to aothe ode of osiousess in Clarke 2011, 198). 5 Star music The philosopher Pythagoras is said to have heard the music of the stars, a harmony that the heavenly luminaries produced. The ancient Greeks believed that ordinary humans did not notice this music, because it was in their ears from the moment of birth, but the semi- divine Pythagoras could hear it (Aristotle De Caelo 290b). 5 For more than two thousand years this belief persisted, hih I all faithful re-eadig of the aiet idea.6 However, stars emit light, not sound; they are forever silent. From the eighteenth century on, this general belief in the harmony of the spheres faded away. In the Middle Ages and the Renaissance people still believed the Pythagorean myth, but in the era of the Enlightenment scientists dismissed it as erroneous, hih I all atioal e-eadig. This shift in cosmological thinking may be seen as a transition from medieval faith to scientific reason (Lewis, 1964).7 Unfortunately, science has not replaced the discarded ancient sacred cosmic order with a new sense of the meaning of life; to mechanistic