An Essay: Music & the Human Soul
Introduction
Music tends to play an instrumental role in our daily lives. We listen to music while driving, working, exercising, and even while sleeping. There is something about music that draws us and connects us to that which surrounds us. More than that, it aids us in coming to know ourselves and can prepare us for the encounter with God. While music can serve as a benefit in so many ways, it can also serve as a detriment in others, most notably as a hinderance to contemplation. While music is a physical occurrence, it is able to be perceived beyond itself, as that which it represents. As such, there are three ways in which music can be said to be of benefit in the contemplation of the Divine: outside ourselves through vestiges, inside ourselves through the human person, and above ourselves through docility and elevation. If music is truly beneficial and good, it will serve as an aid to contemplation such as Saint Bonaventure describes in his work, The Journey of the Mind to God:
The whole universe of things itself could serve as a ladder, by which we can ascend into God. Further, among those things some are vestiges, others are images; some are bodily, others are spiritual; some are temporal, others are everlasting; and in accordance with this, some are outside us, others are inside us.1
Thus, music has the capacity to aid in the contemplation of the Divine by directing the human person to recognize the transcendentals. I will argue this first by describing the powers of the human soul and briefly defining music. I will then explain the transcendentals and what is means for a thing to be called good. Finally, will discuss how music as good directly and indirectly impacts the human soul on three varying levels: outside ourselves, inside ourselves, and above ourselves.
On the Human Soul
The human person is a hylomorphic composite of both body and soul, of form and matter. But what is the soul? How ought we define it? Looking to Aquinas, it seems clear that thesoul is that which gives life to a thing.2 The soul alone is not the true man, as Plato thought; the soul is singular in combination with a body. Thus, the true man is a composite of both a body and a soul.3 The soul itself does not have matter, but consists of only form.4 All living things have a soul, and these are broken into the categories of vegetative, animal, and human.5 From what we can reason about the creation of the human person, we have powers (that which the human person is capable of). These powers are traditionally broken into two sections: non-mental (that which the human person is capable of for instinctual survival) and mental (that which the human person is capable of, other than for instinctual survival).
The non-mental powers are straightforward, and include those things which are necessary for natural development (growth), preservation of life (maintenance), and maintaining human progeny (reproduction). One will notice that the human soul has these powers in common with all vegetative and animal souls.6
The mental powers are further broken down into two categories: knowing powers (those powers with which a human person is capable of sensing) and desiring powers (those powers with which a human person has inclinations known to himself). The knowing powers are both internal and external; the externals being the five senses: taste, smell, hearing, touch, and sight. We must be careful to recognize that it is not the soul alone that senses, but both the body and soul.7 These powers allow human persons to recognize that which is physical around them, whether it be reading a book, eating a nice meal, or listening to a lovely piece of music.
As for internal knowing powers, these would be senses of imagination, common sense, estimation, and memory. Such powers would be utilized when one ‘recollects’ a former event, emotion, or thought. It should be noted that the human person, within his knowing powers, has the power of reason, which is distinct from these senses. The internal knowing powers allow us to make connections with past events to the present, the future, and to other past events. This is directly related to the power reason described below, as a human person may utilize information from past events in order to make decisions.
The desiring powers are broken down into two further subcategories: passions (those powers with which a human person desires) and reason (that which a human person utilizes in order to make decisions). The passions can also be called ‘emotions’ in a modern sense. The passions are separated into concupiscible (that which a human person desires for pleasure) and irascible (that which a human person desires to avoid harm). A human person uses his reason (his intellect and will) in order to make rational decisions. However, a human person also has an estimative power, which is used in order to make non-rational judgements. The estimative power is a power which does not rely on thought in order to make judgements. For example, a man may have a desire to eat food, and as a result, may decide to eat a hamburger. When the man is hungry, his stomach may grumble. This action of the body is what Aquinas calls an action of man, otherwise known as the estimative power.8 If the man engages in any decisions about what he is to eat, he utilizes his reason. As such, he may decide to eat a hamburger rather than a cheeseburger in order to avoid dairy in his diet. It is only the power of reason which is not shared by animal souls, and due to this fact, Aristotle famously called the human person a “rational animal.”9 All of the aforementioned powers are common to both the human body and soul, with the exception of reason, which is common only to the human soul.10
On Defining Music
The human person is a union of parts, composed of form and matter, of a body and a soul. We could say that, in some sense, the human person is a harmony of parts.11 Yet, the human person is one in being. These parts of the human person, namely the powers of the soul, while distinct, make up one human soul. If the parts of the human person are in right-relationship with each other, the human person will flourish. As such, we may reflect upon those things which are also in right-relationship with each other in order to better understand the state of the human person. This can be recognized in music, which has the nature of being a union of parts that are in relationship with each other.
Defining music is no easy task. Is the sound of a man’s footsteps to be considered music? The gentle humming of a woman caring for her child? When does a sound take on the definition of music? One could logically state that all music is sound, but not all sound is music. However, while music may indeed have an objective beginning and definition, this does not necessitate that we are capable of providing such a definition or that we can recognize such a beginning. Eduard Hanslick, a modern philosopher of music, stated that “the content of music is tonally moving forms.”12 While this definition seems rather vague,13 we might interpret this to mean that music is sound which moves in pitch (frequency).
Music, as it would appear, is not easy to define. It is the purpose of this treatise to discover the ways in which music impacts the human person, and most notably, the human soul. While a definition of what music is would be beneficial, defining music would be a treatise of its own. Therefore, let us assume that we are in agreement about what music is, and begin to focus on how music impacts the soul.
On the Transcendentals
All human persons seek an ultimate good. We can observe this plainly in human desire and actions of the will. For instance, in our earlier example, a man decided to eat a hamburger in order to avoid cheese in his diet. In choosing this, he was choosing agood (an object of the will which is sought as an end).14 This good, the hamburger, will satisfy his hunger, and among other things, provide him a small sense of fulfillment. However, while hamburgers provide some sense of fulfillment, it does not logically follow that they are the purpose of life, the ultimate good. The man in our example will soon grow hungry again, and will need to eat. This brief period of fulfillment from a good is a clear sign that hamburgers are not the ultimate good. However, it does indicate that there is a yearning in the human person for ultimate fulfillment, an ultimate good. This is because we see in that which is around us some quality of good in varying degrees. This indicates a creator; one whose image of Goodness is upon creation. Thus, the ultimate good for any human person is “the enjoyment of God”15 and is that which all desire.16 In the same way, the human person seeks that which is beautiful, true, and one.17 Beauty, truth, goodness, and unity constitute the Thomistic understanding known as the transcendentals.18 These transcendentals are attributes of God, of the Divine Nature, and they are imprinted upon all created things, for “all things were made through Him” (John 1:3a).19 God is good, certainly, but more than that, God is Goodness itself. In the same way, God is the Truth, God is Beauty, and God is Unity.
On Defining Music as Good
It seems that music can be called good in at least two ways. First, music can be good insofar as it actualizes the essence20 of music. In other words, in order to name music as good in this sense, it must be music. One could not argue that a cheeseburger is good music, as it does not have the essence of music. Let us refer to this as good music. Second, music can be good insofar as it aids in the recognition and contemplation of the transcendentals. Let us refer to this as music as good. So, then, our question becomes: in what ways does music aid in the recognition and contemplation of the transcendentals? How does it aid the human person to contemplate God?
In his Republic, Plato wrote:
because omissions and the failure of beauty in things badly made or grown would be most quickly perceived by one who was properly educated in music, and so, feeling distaste, rightly, he would praise beautiful things and take delight in them and receive them into his soul to foster its growth and become himself beautiful and good.21
We see in Plato that there are creations of man that are ‘badly made’. Upon recognizing these as bad, the man realizes that he is not satisfied by them, and therefore desires beautiful things. He desires to take delight in them, and allow them to foster his soul. Here we see that that which is badly made is naturally repulsive to the human person if he is trained to recognize it as such. The human person desires to flourish and grow, which is not aided by that which is bad, but by that which is good. The point here is that we have the desire and the capacity within our souls for discerning the transcendentals, and that these transcendentals elevate the human person.22
On the Effect of Music on the Human Soul
Now that we have defined the human soul and music, and have briefly described how the two interact, how does music reveal to us the transcendentals? How does it so move the soul to contemplate the Divine? This topic is incredibly complex, as the human soul is complex and musical ecstasy is not an easy experience to define. In order to provide clarity for the purposes of this discussion, I will begin to assume that we are discussing that which all people would agree is indeed good music. Whether it be a string quartet, a schola of singers for sacred chant, a rock band, or something else, our discussion assumes that the topic is about that which has the essence of music.
In a commentary on the philosophical applications of music, Professor of Jewish Philosophy at Bar-Ilan University, Dr. Dov Schwartz, identifies two general approaches to music by the Medieval Jewish peoples: instrumentally (as a means of actualizing the goals of prayer) and representationally (as a means of the perception of the symbolism of the Divine).23 For our purposes, it seems we can add a third approach: metaphysically (as a means of contemplating the ultimate good).
There are three layers in which our human souls are elevated towards the Divine. These are provided to us by St. Bonaventure, wherein we can contemplate the Divine outside ourselves (through vestiges), inside ourselves (through the image of the Divine in creation),24 and above ourselves (through Divine intervention).25 These are directly reflective of the three aforementioned approaches to music: outside ourselves and instrumental, inside ourselves and representational, and above ourselves and metaphysical. Moving forward, we will refer to this organization as the three layers of contemplation.
The First Layer
St. Bonaventure describes that our first layer involves “vestiges, which are bodily and temporal and outside us.”26 In this layer, the human person contemplates that which is around him. St. Bonaventure explicates this as such:
According to the first way, as the intellect contemplates, considering things as they are in themselves, it sees them in terms of weight, number, and measure. Weight refers to the position toward which they are inclined; number refers to that by which things are distinguished; and measure is that by which things are limited. Thus we see things in terms of state, form-beauty, and order, and in terms of substance, power, and activity. From observing these aspects, we can rise as from the trace or vestige to an understanding of the immense power, wisdom, and goodness of the Creator.27
Here, St. Bonaventure relies on the book of Wisdom, where it is written “[y]ou have arranged all things by measure and number and weight” (Wisdom, 11:20). We see here that in the first layer we are concerned with weight, number, and measure. The weight is in regard to a thing’s final causality (the end of a thing), the number considers its distinction as a thing which has being separate from other things (the specific being of a thing), and the measure regards its connection to the things around it (the relation of a thing to other things). In other words, “The first way [number] considers that a thing is; the second [measure], what that thing is; and the third [weight], that thing’s location in the hierarchy of creation.”28
In recognizing these aspects of a thing, the human person, through sense perception, first apprehends the thing.29 This occurs in the knowing powers, such that the human person comes to know a thing based upon its properties. Next is a judgement of a thing.30 This first judgement is a judgement of pleasure, such that a human person either initially delights in the thing or not.31 Lastly, a judgement proper occurs, wherein the human person contemplates the thing’s substance. Here, the quality of the thing is contemplated, and after considering the thing (notably its weight), it is judged as good or not. This judgement is most concerned with why a thing was judged as delightful or not in the first judgement32 and aids the human person to “aim at higher things.”33 It is in this sense that God can be contemplated by the aid of things. God is good, certainly, but more fundamentally, He is Goodness itself. As all things were created through Him, all things bear some vestige of His Goodness, which is recognized when a thing is seen as good insofar as it is good. In this way, we can recognize God both through vestiges and in them.34
It is in this way that music, while a physical thing, can raise one’s mind to God insofar as it is good. Music, in the first layer, is considered in itself as a vestige. The human person hears the music with the external senses, apprehends the music as such through the knowing powers, makes an initial judgement of the music as pleasing or not, and finally makes a judgement proper about the music, thus recognizing the good of the music and God’s goodness as Goodness itself in and through the music. The human person recognizes the measure and number of music through its relative chord structure, its time signature, its key, and so on. It is in recognition of these, namely number, that the human person comes to recognize music as beautiful, good, true, and one; whether or not music aids in the recognition and contemplation of the transcendentals. Thus, music aids in transcendental reflection in our first layer insofar as a human person contemplates God in and through music as a vestige.
The Second Layer
In the first layer, the human person looks to vestiges outside of himself. In this second layer, the human person looks inwardly. St. Bonaventure exhorts us: “Therefore, enter into yourself and recognize that your mind loves itself most fervently; but that it could not love itself if it did not know itself.”35 Thus, our second layer is concerned with knowing oneself, such that God can be known. This process intimately involves the memory, which can be described as having three different but intertwined functions: first, the retention of the past, present, and future; second, receiving the forms of both external objects and those forms (simple forms) that are from above.; third, the recognition of changeless truth, namely, that the human person bears the image and likeness of God.36 One will recognize that the second aspect directly depends on God intervening in some way in order to illuminate the human person’s intellect.
Music affects the soul firstly through our feelings, our passions: “But ‘innerly experiencing’ a piece of music also means connecting the feeling it produces to everything else around it.”37 Our first layer discussed the means by which we come to judge a thing in itself. In our second layer, the human person can recognize how music aids him in understanding himself. This constitutes what we might call the second layer of the experience of music in the human soul. This can be further understood when we consider that,
Bonaventure holds that the soul [is] a spiritual substance […] and the ‘extent’ of a musical composition can only be held in the memory, after it has been received into the soul. What the soul receives, then, are the pure, proportioned, numerical relationships inherent in the composition. 38
This inward experience of music is not an experience of music as music, it is an experience of music insofar as it aids the human person in self-contemplation. Thus far, the human person is capable of recognizing the transcendentals and the capacity for music to aid in the contemplation of them. In the second layer, the human person utilizes that which music is, symbolizes, and entails in order to contemplate himself. If the human person did not utilize his memory in this process, he would hear beautiful sound, but would not recognize it as good music.Sound requires a hearer with memory in order for it to be recognized as music,39 and as such, to recognize the weight of symbolism it manifests. It is important to recognize that a thing can be both a symbol and that which it symbolizes. We can think of this as follows: a newborn child is beautiful. This is not because of the actual attractiveness of the child, but because the child is beautiful by reason of its being.40 However, it is also beautiful because of what it symbolizes: the beauty of the love of the parents, the beauty of the love of God, the beauty of new life, and so on. Therefore, a thing can be both a symbol and that which it symbolizes. We both recognize a thing for what it is and for what it points to beyond itself.
It is in this way that music serves to aid the human person to contemplate himself. The human person utilizes his powers (namely, memory) to recall the experience of a piece of music and recognize sounds as good music. In this layer, the human person experiences the result of having heard music, of having felt its vibrations and contemplated its nature, of recognizing its number and measure. The human person contemplates the form of the music, the passions he experienced, the order and proportion of the melody and chords, the relational harmonies, and begins to contemplate himself: the order of his own being, the many parts that he is composed of, the relation of his parts, other experiences of similar passions, and the like.41 Having utilized the powers of his soul, he begins to contemplate them: their order and their relation to each other; and recognizes the proper ordering of his soul.42 He also contemplates their origin.43 The human person recognizes the beauty, truth, goodness, and unity found in music as good and so recognizes these in himself as a created being. Thus, “when the soul reflects upon itself, it rises, through itself as through a mirror, to the spectacle of the blessed Trinity of the Father, Word, and Love.”44
It should be noted that while music certainly aids us in recognizing the Divine, it is not the ultimate end. Music is not the ultimate good, God is. As such, music serves only to aid us in our contemplation. When it begins to overshadow our contemplation, it directly distracts from the ultimate good. To become distracted in this way, we would forget that we are a hylomorphic composite, and would become caught up in only the physical senses, forgetting those that are purely spiritual senses. Not only would we become distracted from contemplation of the good, we would cease to be inwardly ordered towards the good by means of a “sugared poison.”45 As such, music that distracts from the transcendentals cannot be truly called music as good.
The Third Layer
In the third layer, the human person utilizes all that has been experienced in the previous two, such that he is “flooded with all these intellectual lights, [and] our mind, then, becomes a daughter, a bride, and a friend of God.”46 In this layer, there is no need for the sensing powers of the human soul, as the human person reflects upon God as God.
How are we to contemplate God as God, as the Divine Himself and not simply through a thing?47 While the human person can come to understand the existence of God by means of his intellect and reason, left to his own powers, he is incapable of further comprehending the nature of God. As the Seraphic Doctor reminds us, “we cannot rise above ourselves except by means of a superior power lifting us up.”48 Thus, in this layer, the human person relies on God to elevate him. Here, faith is crucial; Pope St. John Paul II exhorts us: “The results of reasoning may in fact be true, but these results acquire their true meaning only if they are set within the larger horizon of faith.”49
This journey towards the ultimate good through music “begins with reason's capacity to rise beyond what is contingent and set out towards the infinite.”50 As stated earlier, we begin with our own reason, and allow ourselves to be elevated beyond our limited intellect, towards that which is infinite, towards the ultimate good. Music will only aid us to contemplate the ultimate good if we are docile.51 It is that which can be called music as good which trains the human person for docility. Therefore, in this third layer we are only concerned with music as good. Docility requires that we recognize our limitations, our limited intellect, our limited powers. It is precisely this point that St. Paul describes to the Romans when he writes: “be transformed by the renewal of your mind” (Romans 12:1-2). Here, the word in the Greek for ‘transformed’ relates to change,52 while the Greek for ‘mind’ relates to the innermost being of a human person.53 If we wish to experience a taste of the fullness of God, we must be changed at the very heart of our being; at the place where the human soul is intimate with God.
Boethius, a sixth-century philosopher, in his work The Consolation of Philosophy, presents us with an example of how music consoles and aids in the elevation of the human person: “Though she had ended her verse, yet the sweetness of it made me remain astonished, attentive, and desirous to hear her longer.”54 Music, while physical, has the capacity to train the human person to become docile and desire that which is above him. Leo Schrade, a twentieth-century philosopher of music, describes this as such:
For music as the art of sound exerts in all events and by its very nature an influence upon the moral state of man, or, in the words of Boethius himself, music is capable of ‘improving or degrading the morals of men’. In addition to this, however, music as part of mathematics shares in those educational ethics that are inherent in the disciplines of the Quadriviumn. It contributes to the training of the intellect, which in the end must be totally free from all bodily impediments.55
And so, free from bodily impediments and relying only on the aid of God to lift us further, music serves as a teacher, a vehicle, and a means of facilitating the transcendentals. While music aids in transcendental contemplation insofar as it is, good music, as that which is physical, meets its limits at the third layer.
One possible application of music at this third layer that I present is the way in which it aids in the contemplation of the Holy Trinity, the Undivided Unity. The Holy Trinity is three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Father eternally begets the Son,56 and the Spirit proceeds from both the Father and the Son.57 These three Persons are of the same substance,58 and are indeed three distinct Persons, not ‘modes’ of the Divine Nature.59 The Godhead is not just a unity, but is Unity itself, just as God is Goodness, is the Truth, and is Beauty.
Upon contemplating the Holy Trinity, the Seraphic Doctor argued that “[t]he Father is properly the One without an originator, the Unbegotten One; the Principle who proceeds from no other; the Father as such.”60 Here, the nature of the Father is expounded; He is the Principle. As a pianist plays a piece, he begins by recognizing the parts that make it to be what it is: the time signature, the various movements of tonalities, the relative key, and so on. Each one of these, in some regard, set the stage for the piece: ¾ time, a relative key of Bb, treble and bass clef, and so on. However, each of these can only be said to be a principle in a limited sense. First, there are multiple, and as such, they cannot possibly be the principle in this way. Second, key changes, time signature changes, and the utilization of two treble clefs rather than one bass and one treble all present the capacity for change. These aspects of music are relative, and thus, this analogy falls short.
While it is indeed the case that music is relative, we have the capacity to recognize the Holy Trinity, through analogy, in music. For example, in our first layer we recognized good music, a physical thing, and allowed it to aid us in recognizing the image of God upon creation. This first layer quite readily reflects God the Son, the Incarnate One, who entered creation and became fully man while remaining fully God. Through Him we recognize the number and proportion of a thing. Just as all that is able to be apprehended generates its own number and proportion, they “openly proclaim that the eternal generation of the Word, the Image, and the Son eternally proceeding from God the Father can be observed in them as mirrors.”61 Thus, God the Son is recognized in the first layer. Upon recognizing God the Son, He points us toward the Father in our second layer, where the Father is recognized through the utilization of memory; where we look to the image of God upon the human person. The utilization of memory “retains, in a lasting way and as eternal, the principles and axioms of the sciences.”62 The Father, as the eternal Principle is thus contemplated by the utilization of the power of memory. Upon recognizing the Father, our minds, if we are docile, are elevated by the Spirit beyond our capacities towards the infinite Unity of the three Persons. As the Seraphic Doctor teaches us: “Just as no one can know a human person’s innermost self except the spirit of that person which dwells within, so no one knows the things of God but the Spirit of God.”63 Thus, through docility and elevation the Holy Spirit is recognized, as one cannot know the things of God except by Him who elevates through docility.
As such, we can view the third layer in regard to the Holy Spirit as follows: when music as good changes one of its principles, for instance, when it changes keys, it does so in order to elevate. The Holy Spirit changes us insofar as He elevates us beyond ourselves and into a new relationship to that which is around us and with Himself. This is the meeting of two wills, such that the human person wills to be docile and the Spirit wills to elevate. This can be likened to fallen humanity as represented in our initial key signature, and restored humanity as represented in our elevated time signature.64 The Holy Trinity is at the very heart of this elevation, as it is Relationship itself. Unlike music, the Trinity is unchanging. Change requires a stable principle, and because all that which is around us changes, we are led to contemplate the changeless principle. Thus, the Father, as the Principle, is the ultimate source of our contemplation.
Thus, let us contemplate the Unity of God, the Undivided Trinity: “The Supremely One is supremely first because He is absolutely without beginning; the Supremely True is supremely conforming and beautiful; the Supremely Good is supremely satisfying and beneficent.”65 This Supreme Oneness is not a harmony, but a Divine Relationship bound up in love. The Father is Father because He begets the Son. The Son is Son because He is begotten by the Father. The Spirit is Spirit because He is the Love of the Father and the Son.66
We reflected upon the many parts of music in our first layer. In the second layer we reflected upon our many parts as a human person. In this third layer, we cannot say that we reflect on God’s parts, as God is undivided. However, God is Relationship. And so, the aid that music as good provides us in the third layer is simply this: a training for the desire and docility needed to contemplate the Supreme Unity in perfect relationship.
Conclusion
Music provides us with an ability to recognize and contemplate the transcendentals, and as such, provides us with a means of recognizing God: outside ourselves, inside ourselves, and above ourselves. These three layers are directly reflective of the three Persons of the Holy Trinity, the source of everything. As such, music draws in the listener precisely because God can be recognized in and through it. Furthermore, music has the potential to aid the human person in recognizing God in himself as a created being. Finally, through docility and elevation, the human person can be brought into right-relationship with that which is around him and with God Himself. In this third layer the human intellect must be illuminated from above, and faith reigns superior, for:
If, however, you ask how all these things come about, ask grace, not learning; desire, not intellect; the groaning of prayer and not diligent reading; the Bridegroom, not the academic teacher; God, not a human being; darkness, not clarity; not light, but the fire that inflames one totally and carries one into God through spiritual fervor and with the most burning affections.67
The elevated soul, having entered into right-relationship, can be said to have passed into a Divine song of love with its Creator.68 Therefore, let us journey toward God through the gift of music as good, that it may teach us and so aid us in our docility to the will of God, who reigns supreme, for “My grace is sufficient for you” (2 Corinthians, 12:9).
Bonaventure, The Journey of the Mind Into God. Trans. Oleg Bychkov, n.d. https://web.sbu.edu/theology/bychkov/itinerarium_oleg.pdf. Ch. 1, Para. 2.
Aquinas, Summa Theologica. Trans. Fathers of the English Dominican Province. (London: Burns Oates & Washbourne LTD., 1920), Q 75, a.1, i.a.t. See also: Q 76, a.5, o.t.c.
Aquinas, Summa Theologica, I, Q 76, a.3, resp.
Aquinas, Summa Theologica, I, Q 75, a.5, i.a.t.
Aquinas, Summa Theologica, I Q 76, a.3, resp.
Steven J. Jensen, The Human Person: A Beginner’s Thomistic Psychology (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2018), Pg. 130.
Jensen, The Human Person, Pg. 112. Dualism, a teaching rejected by the Church, concludes that the soul alone senses.
Aquinas, Summa Theologica, I-II, Q 1, a.1, i.a.t.
Jensen, The Human Person, Figure 5-2, Pg. 80.
Aquinas, Summa Theologica, I, Q 76, a.8, ad. 4.
Here, the use of ‘harmony of parts’ is poetic. Boethius explicated his views on the ‘soul of the universe’ being in a ‘harmony’ (see his work Fundamentals of Music, Bk. 1, 1.4). However, the human person cannot be truly a ‘harmony’, as the soul is able to subsist of itself. Therefore, that which can be defined as a true ‘harmony’ must be only of matter. It is for this reason that both the human person and the nature of the Holy Trinity may not be defined as ‘harmonious’. However, music and that which is of matter can be said to be ‘harmonious’. See: St. Thomas Aquinas, Questiones Disputate De Anima, art.1, i.a.t.
Eduard Hanslick, On the Musically Beautiful: A Contribution Towards the Revision of the Aesthetics of Music. Trans. Geoffery Payzant. (8th ed. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing Company, 1891), Pg. 29.
By the utilization of the term ‘content’, we might assume that ‘essence’ is being referenced.
Aquinas, Summa Theologica, I, Q 82, a.4, i.a.t.
Aquinas, Summa Theologica, II-II, Q 23, a.7, i.a.t.
Aquinas, Summa Theologica, I, Q 5, a.1, i.a.t.
Plato, Philebus. Trans. John Burnet. (Oxford University Press, 1903), 65b. Here, the English equivalents are listed as “beauty, truth, and measure.” See footnote 18 in regards to ‘unity’, which Plato does not explicitly name. See also: Bonaventure, Breviloquium. Trans. José de Vinck. (Paterson, NJ: St. Anthony Guild Press, 1963), 1.6.3.
Aquinas also recognizes ‘unity’ or ‘one-ness’ as a transcendental, such that man desires to be one with the Divine, who is also a unity of Persons. For our purposes, we will focus on the good, true, and beautiful, with some discussion of ‘unity’.
The Greek word utilized here is γίνομαι which contains the meaning “to come into being.”
‘Essence’ here refers to that which a thing is. See: Aquinas, Summa Theologica, I Q 3 a.3 i.a.t.
Plato, The Republic. Trans. Paul Shorey. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1969), Bk. 3, 127-128. Note here that Plato is discussing the importance of proper education in music. While this has importance, the essential truths that this passage presents remain: that the human person has the desire and capacity for recognizing the transcendentals. Proper education in music is discussed later in this treatise.
L. M. De Rijk, “On Ancient and Mediaeval Semantics and Metaphysics.” Brill Publications, Vivarium, 15, no. 2 (1977): 81–110. Pg. 100. Here, the author describes that for Plato, that which is transcendent is a form that exists independently from sensible things. Plato never used the term ‘transcendental’ in his Greek, and it should be noted that his understanding of what we call the transcendentals differs from Aquinas. For our purposes, the important aspect is that there exists that which elevates the human person beyond himself.
Dov Schwartz, The Soul Seeks Its Melodies: Music In Jewish Thought. Trans. Batya Stein. (Boston, MA: Academic Studies Press, 2022), Pg. 134.
Bonaventure, Journey of the Mind Into God, Ch. 2. Para. 7.
Bonaventure, Journey of the Mind Into God, Ch. 5. Para. 1.
Bonaventure, Journey of the Mind Into God, Ch. 1, Para. 2.
Bonaventure, Journey of the Mind Into God, Ch. 1, Para. 11.
David E. Ost, “Bonaventure: The Aesthetic Synthesis.” St. Bonaventure University - Franciscan Institute Publications, Franciscan Studies, 36 (1976): 233–47, Pg. 234, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41974877
This can also be said to be a ‘judgement’ insofar as one judges characteristics such as ‘white’ or ‘black’, ‘small’ or ‘large’.
St. Bonaventure also names this judgement ‘delight’ or ‘particular sense’.
Saint Bonaventure gives the examples of “beauty”, “sweetness”, and “healthful quality.” He also refers to this as ‘interior sense’. See Bonaventure, Journey of the Mind to God, Ch. 2, Para. 5.
Bonaventure, Journey of the Mind Into God, Ch. 2. Para. 6.
Augustine, TrueReligion, 32.59.
Bonaventure, Journey of the Mind Into God, Ch. 2. Para. 1.
Bonaventure, Journey of the Mind Into God, Ch. 3, Para. 1.2.
Bonaventure, Journey of the Mind Into God, Ch. 3. Para. 2.
Riccardo Martinelli. Philosophy of Music: A History. Trans. Sarah De Sanctis. (Bologna, Italy: Segretariato Europeo per le Pubblicazioni Scientifiche, 2012), Ch. “Harmony & Disenchantment”, Pg. 127.
Ost, “BONAVENTURE: THE AESTHETIC SYNTHESIS.”233–47. Pg. 235.
Seamus O’Neill, “Augustine and Boethius, Memory and Eternity.” International Institute for Hermeneutics, Analecta Hermeneutica, 6 (2014), Intro.
Augustine, The Enchiridon On Faith, Hope, and Charity. Trans. Bruce Harbert. (Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 2005), Ch. 4.13. St. Augustine teaches us that: “[e]very being […] insofar as it is a being is good.”
Ann W. Astell, Job, Boethius, and Epic Truth. (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1994), Pg. 64. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7591/j.ctvn5txxr.
Kimberly D. Heil, “‘How Pythagoras Cured by Music’: Pythagorean Music in Boethius’s Consolation of Philosophy,” 2019, Pg. 38-39. http://www.ramify.org/0801_heil.pdf.
Bonaventure, Journey of the Mind Into God, Ch. 3, Para. 5.
Bonaventure, Journey of the Mind Into God, Ch. 3, Para. 5. We must be abundantly careful to recognize that St. Bonaventure names the Trinity in such a way not so as to describe ‘essence’ or ‘accidental properties’, but to describe the ‘persons’ as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Boethius. “The Consolation of Philosophy” in: The Theological Tractates & The Consolation of Philosophy. Trans. by H. F. Stewart and E. K. Rand. (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, n.d.), Bk. 1.1. In regard to the muses at the bedside of Boethius.
Bonaventure, Journey of the Mind Into God, Ch. 4, Para. 8.
Saint Bonaventure, Journey of the Mind Into God, Ch. 3, Para. 1.
Bonaventure, Journey of the Mind Into God, Ch. 1, Para. 1.
John Paul II. Fides Et Ratio [Encyclical Letter on the Relationship Between Faith and Reason]. (The Holy See. September 14, 1998), Para. 20. https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_14091998_fides-et-ratio.html.
John Paul II, Fides Et Ratio, Para. 24.2.
Bonaventure, Journey of the Mind Into God, Ch. 1, Para. 1.
Μεταμορφόω: a change in form.
νοῦς: the inner-most being of a human person. Related to the Greek καρδία, which has many meanings including but not limited to ‘heart’ ‘soul’ and ‘intellect’.
Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy, Bk. 3.1.
Leo Schrade. “Music in the Philosophy of Boethius.” The Musical Quarterly 33, no. 2 (1947): 188–200. Schrade, Leo. “Music in the Philosophy of Boethius.” Oxford University Press, The Musical Quarterly, 33, no. 2 (1947): 188–200. Pg. 193.
Nicene Creed, 325 A.D.
Nicene-Constantinopolian Creed, 381 A.D. This was reaffirmed at the Council of Toledo, 693 A.D.
Nicene Creed, 325 A.D.
Tertullian. Against Praxeas. Ed. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. C. Coxe. Trans. Kevin Knight. (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1885), Ch. 2.
Bonaventure, Breviloquium, Pt. 1, Ch. 3.7.
Bonaventure, Journey of the Mind Into God, Ch. 2, Para. 7.
Bonaventure, Journey of the Mind Into God, Ch. 3, Para. 2.3.
Bonaventure, Journey of the Mind Into God, Ch. 4, Para. 8.
Bonaventure, Journey of the Mind Into God, Ch. 2, Para. 2.
Bonaventure, Breviloquium, Pt. 1, Ch. 6.3.
Bonaventure, Breviloquium, Pt. 1, Ch. 2.7-9.
Bonaventure, Journey of the Mind Into God, Ch. 7, Para. 6.1.
Bonaventure, Journey of the Mind Into God, Ch. 4, Para. 3.2.
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