<div id="LayerE10" style="visibility: visible; overflow: visible; z-index:0; left:10px; top:5px; position:absolute; "><?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> <head> <!-- ======================================================= --> <!-- Created by AbiWord, a free, Open Source wordprocessor. --> <!-- For more information visit http://www.abisource.com. --> <!-- ======================================================= --> <meta content="text/html;charset=UTF-8" http-equiv="content-type" /> <title>Harmonics & Astronomy - Harmony of The Spheres.html</title> <style type="text/css"><!-- #toc, .toc, .mw-warning { border: 1px solid #aaa; background-color: #f9f9f9; padding: 5px; font-size: 95%; } #toc h2, .toc h2 { display: inline; border: none; padding: 0; font-size: 100%; font-weight: bold; } #toc #toctitle, .toc #toctitle, #toc .toctitle, .toc .toctitle { text-align: center; } #toc ul, .toc ul { list-style-type: none; list-style-image: none; margin-left: 0; padding-left: 0; text-align: left; } #toc ul ul, .toc ul ul { margin: 0 0 0 2em; } #toc .toctoggle, .toc .toctoggle { font-size: 94%; }@media print, projection, embossed { body { padding-top:1.0000in; padding-bottom:1.0000in; padding-left:1.2500in; padding-right:1.2500in; } } body { text-indent:0in; text-align:left; font-weight:normal; text-decoration:none; font-variant:normal; color:#000000; font-size:12pt; font-style:normal; widows:2; font-family:'Times New Roman'; } table { } td { border-collapse:collapse; text-align:left; vertical-align:top; } p, h1, h2, h3, li { color:#000000; font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-size:12pt; text-align:left; vertical-align:normal; } *.footnote_text { font-size:10pt; } *.footnote_reference { font-size:10pt; vertical-align:super; } --></style> </head> <body> <div> <p style="text-align: left;" dir="ltr"></p> <div style="text-align: left;" dir="ltr"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;" lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US"> <table style="border-collapse: collapse;" width="600" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" bordercolor="#000000" border="0"><tbody><tr><td width="100%" valign="top"> <div><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;" lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">The Harmony of the Spheres</span> <p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US"> The concept and worldview of the </span><span style="font-style: italic;" lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">harmony of the spheres</span><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US"> is common to almost all classical and pre-classical peoples. But in it we find not only the “cosmic” content of akróasis, expressed in myths and legends and interwoven in numerous forms, but even more, we find that specialized harmonic research since the earliest antiquity repeatedly sought concrete connections between the stars and the laws of tones, until Kepler and modern harmonics proved these connections. I will give a few examples so that a few of these mythological forms of the celestial world can be “heard.” Lucian writes: “Thus the lyre served Orpheus, its inventor, as the noblest instrument of his clandestine religion; but this lyre, which had seven strings, was to him a symbol indicating the harmonies of the planets. It was with this secret science that he charmed and mastered all: his concern was not the lyre he had made himself, nor what one generally thinks of as music.”</span><span id="footnote_ref-1" class="footnote_reference"><a href="#footnote_anchor-1">1</a></span><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US"> In the Orphic hymns, Helios Apollo is entreated: “You who with golden lyre guide the harmonic progression of all”; Pan is addressed as “under the stars playing / the harmonies of the world on a jesting flute”; and Apollo is sung to thus: “With your bright playing you guide / the whole pole; now changing to the lowest string / now to the highest, and now, in the Dorian mode / completely harmonizing the pole”-the celestial pole, of course.</span><span id="footnote_ref-2" class="footnote_reference"><a href="#footnote_anchor-2">2</a></span><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US"> Franz Cumont</span><span id="footnote_ref-3" class="footnote_reference"><a href="#footnote_anchor-3">3</a></span><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US"> found depictions of the Muses on seven Roman sarcophagi from the 1</span><span style="vertical-align: super;" lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">st</span><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US"> to the 4</span><span style="vertical-align: super;" lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">th</span><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US"> centuries, and comments on them as follows: “The sister goddesses who oversee the harmony of the spheres awaken in people's hearts, through music, the passionate longing for those divine harmonies and the yearning toward the heavens. At the same time the daughters of Mnemosyne recall to consciousness the memory of the truths she knew in an earlier life. They share their wisdom with her, the pledge of immortality. Thanks to them, thought rises up to the ether, is initiated into the secrets of nature, and reaches the circle of the choir of the stars. It is relieved of the worries of this world, is transported to the world of ideas and of beauty, and cleansed of material passions. And after death the heavenly maidens summon the soul they have consecrated in their service to the celestial sphere, and allow it to take part in the blissful life of the immortals.” Of the eight heavenly spheres, Plato</span><span id="footnote_ref-4" class="footnote_reference"><a href="#footnote_anchor-4">4</a></span><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US"> writes that on each circle sits “a siren, who goes round with them, hymning a single tone or note. The eight together form one harmony; and round about, at equal intervals, there is another band, three in number, each sitting upon her throne: these are the Fates, daughters of Necessity, who are clothed in white robes and have chaplets upon their heads, Lachesis and Clotho and Atropos, who accompany with their voices the harmony of the sirens-Lachesis singing of the past, Clotho of the present, Atropos of the future.”</span></p> <p style="text-align: left;" dir="ltr"><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US"> The singing swan also reaches the stars. Virgil</span><span id="footnote_ref-5" class="footnote_reference"><a href="#footnote_anchor-5">5</a></span><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US"> tells of the legend:</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; margin-left: 0.5194in;" dir="ltr"><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">“For it is told that Cygnus [the swan], mourning for beloved Phaeton,</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; margin-left: 0.5194in;" dir="ltr"><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">Under budding poplar branches and the shadows of the sisters,</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; margin-left: 0.5194in;" dir="ltr"><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">As he sought to ease the sorrow of his love by singing songs,</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; margin-left: 0.5194in;" dir="ltr"><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">Old age hastened in upon him, silver-gray with tender down,</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; margin-left: 0.5194in;" dir="ltr"><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">And flying up from earth, he pursued the stars with chanting.”</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US"> There are many more examples of ancient poetry and speculation relating to the harmony of the spheres. We will mention only a few others.</span></p> <p style="text-align: left;" dir="ltr"><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US"> Pindar, a contemporary of Pythagoras (6</span><span style="vertical-align: super;" lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">th</span><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US"> century B.C.), sang:</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; margin-left: 0.5194in;" dir="ltr"><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">“Golden lyre,</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; margin-left: 0.5194in;" dir="ltr"><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">Apollo plays you above in heaven,</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; margin-left: 0.5194in;" dir="ltr"><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">and you rule the dance and song</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; margin-left: 0.5194in;" dir="ltr"><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">of the violet-ringlet Muses.</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; margin-left: 0.5194in;" dir="ltr"><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">Below on Earth the choirmasters</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; margin-left: 0.5194in;" dir="ltr"><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">hear these sounds,</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; margin-left: 0.5194in;" dir="ltr"><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">and the singers follow the directions</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; margin-left: 0.5194in;" dir="ltr"><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">when you strike up the prelude</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; margin-left: 0.5194in;" dir="ltr"><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">giving beat and tone to the song.”</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US"> Willamowitz-Moellendorf, from whom this translation is quoted,</span><span id="footnote_ref-6" class="footnote_reference"><a href="#footnote_anchor-6">6</a></span><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US"> recognizes in this poem a poetic veiling of the harmony of the spheres. The dance, so closely bound up with music for the Greeks, is a symbol of the heavenly dance of the stars: “For what is this round dance of the stars, this regular interwoven movement of the planets in relation to the fixed stars, and the rhythmical unification and beautiful harmony of their movements, if not proof of a great primal dance?” writes Lucian.</span><span id="footnote_ref-7" class="footnote_reference"><a href="#footnote_anchor-7">7</a></span><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US"> Cicero</span><span id="footnote_ref-8" class="footnote_reference"><a href="#footnote_anchor-8">8</a></span><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US"> moves entirely in the akróatic realm of ideas when he writes of soul, tone, and cosmos: “Indeed, Socrates asks Xenophon from whence we have conceived the soul, if there is none in the world. And I ask, whence speech, whence the regular harmony of speech, whence song? We would have to assume that the sun converses with the moon when they approach each other, or that the world sings in harmony, as Pythagoras says. These are works of nature, Balbus, not of an artificially intrusive nature, as Zeno expresses it, but one that stimulates and drives everything through its own motions and changes.”</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US"> We will remark only in passing that the ancients closely studied the analogies of the elements of speech, of vowels and consonants to the tones of the planets and celestial spheres, through which they regained a connection to the most ancient cosmic meaning of sound and of the word itself; we will return to this later.</span><span id="footnote_ref-9" class="footnote_reference"><a href="#footnote_anchor-9">9</a></span><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US"> But the reader will agree with me that a name, indeed an entire realm of concepts, can now no longer be avoided: </span><span style="font-style: italic;" lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">Pythagoras</span><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">.</span></p> <p style="text-align: left;" dir="ltr"><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US"><br /> </span></p> <p> </p> <div> <p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr" awml:style="Footnote Text" class="footnote_text"><span id="footnote_anchor-1" class="footnote_reference"><a href="#footnote_ref-1">1</a></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US"> Lucian, Sämtliche Werke, tr. by Wieland, Propyläen-Verlag, Berlin 1922, vol. 4, pp. 328-329.</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr" awml:style="Footnote Text" class="footnote_text"><span id="footnote_anchor-2" class="footnote_reference"><a href="#footnote_ref-2">2</a></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US"> Die Hymnen des Orpheus, tr. by Dietsch, 1822, pp. 23, 33, 86-87.</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr" awml:style="Footnote Text" class="footnote_text"><span id="footnote_anchor-3" class="footnote_reference"><a href="#footnote_ref-3">3</a></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US"> In his last master-work, Recherches sur le symbolisme funéraire des romains, Paris 1942-quoted from the translation by E.R. Curtius in europ. Literatur und lateinisches Mittelalter, Bern 1948, p. 239.</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr" awml:style="Footnote Text" class="footnote_text"><span id="footnote_anchor-4" class="footnote_reference"><a href="#footnote_ref-4">4</a></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US"> Republic X, 617, tr. by Benjamin Jowett, New York: P.F. Collier, 1901.</span></p> <p style="text-align: left;" dir="ltr" awml:style="Footnote Text" class="footnote_text"><span id="footnote_anchor-5" class="footnote_reference"><a href="#footnote_ref-5">5</a></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US"> Aeneid, X, 198, from Voß: Mythologische Briefe, vol. 2 (1794), pp. 98-99.</span></p> <p style="text-align: left;" dir="ltr" awml:style="Footnote Text" class="footnote_text"><span id="footnote_anchor-6" class="footnote_reference"><a href="#footnote_ref-6">6</a></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US"> Die Harmonie der Sphären, Berlin 1915, p. 130.</span></p> <p style="text-align: left;" dir="ltr" awml:style="Footnote Text" class="footnote_text"><span id="footnote_anchor-7" class="footnote_reference"><a href="#footnote_ref-7">7</a></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US"> Von der Tanzkunst, op. cit., vol. 4, pp. 89-90.</span></p> <p style="text-align: left;" dir="ltr" awml:style="Footnote Text" class="footnote_text"><span id="footnote_anchor-8" class="footnote_reference"><a href="#footnote_ref-8">8</a></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US"> De Natura Deorum, tr. by Kühner 1862, Book 3, Ch. 11.</span></p> <p style="text-align: left;" dir="ltr" awml:style="Footnote Text" class="footnote_text"><span id="footnote_anchor-9" class="footnote_reference"><a href="#footnote_ref-9">9</a></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US"> See, among others, Franz Dornseiff: Das Alphabet in Mystik und Magie, 1922, p. 82 ff.</span></p> </div></div></td></tr></tbody></table></span></div></div> </body> </html></div>
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