The sphere of music begins in ancient Greece with Pythagoras who, it is said, heard the harmony of sounds in the intervals of the octave, fifth, and fourth when he passed by a blacksmith’s workshop where hammers struck an anvil. This inspired him to discover the connection between vibration, frequency, and pitch. Pythagoras considered the octave, with a frequency ratio of 1:2, as a symbol of divine harmony between lower and higher levels, and believed that the structure of the world could be understood through the intervals of the fourth and fifth.
Boethius, a Roman philosopher who lived from 480 to 524 AD, during the decline of the Roman Empire, revived the Pythagorean cosmic vision that described the understanding of music, starting from the simplest musical instruments invented by humans to the concept of order and divine harmony in the universe. Boethius, like Pythagoras, divided music into three types:
Music is not only connected with thinking but also with morality, as nothing is more in line with human nature than being soothed by pleasant tones or disturbed by tones contrary to them.
That’s how we begin to understand Plato’s teaching that the entire universe is united in musical harmony.
Since humans have always observed the sky, they concluded that life fundamentally revolves around the movement of celestial bodies. Seasons bring harvests, tides govern navigation, and the rising and setting of the Sun determine the hours of the workday. These complex planetary movements and annual rhythms bring harmonious diversity. Boethius also considered it impossible for celestial bodies to move without sound; perhaps the music of the spheres is too loud for us to hear, or maybe we do not distinguish it from silence because it has been in our ears since birth.
Boethius also describes a type of music on the level of the human being, Musicus Humanus, which refers to the individual human, or how our various aspects (body, soul, and spirit) are harmoniously coordinated.
The great Renaissance scholar Marsilio Ficino developed a form of music therapy that dealt with various psychological states of human beings. Likewise, the Neoplatonic philosopher Plotinus described the connection between the psyche (human thoughts and emotions) and music, adding that each planetary sphere is aligned with one aspect of the human psyche.
Music is a part of us; it either enriches or diminishes our behavior.
Musica Instrumentalis is the music of instruments, the one that is most familiar to us, representing a reflection of the divine harmony that we can hear.
Song is almost nothing but spirit.
Boethius depicts music as a complete expression and a means of understanding the invisible. Music connects us to the understanding of the invisible on a sensory level, but it is also music within us, and its presence points to a hidden inner understanding and unity with the divine harmony and universal law.
If mathematics is the language of all things, then music is the voice; sometimes a beautiful singing, sometimes an inner voice, and sometimes the voice of sublime forces.