I suspect you have checked out the work of Ernest MacClain. If not, you might find his investigations into the connections between ancient music theory, mythology, philosophy, and sacred texts right up your alley.
Re: authorities of antiquity consulting musicians on matters of importance ---Manly P. Hall, in his book Pathways to Philosophy, describes the medieval Troubadours as being the only ones in the royal court (besides the Jester) who could contradict the King, ridicule the nobles, and criticize the policies of the time.
As far as Vico being the embodiment of Chaos, as Ortega y Gasset maintains-- Edward Lorenz' Butterfly Effect postulates that what we call 'chaos' is actually a deterministic series which can be understood, but only IF the initial conditions of the sequence are understood in their entirety.
Moreover, I believe Vico's assertion that the earth was once populated with a race of giants has been proposed by several modern theorists. In any case, as my Auntie used to say: "Even a stopped clock is right twice a day."
"Orpheus ruled a harmonious kingdom by music alone, and the power of music was so well known to ancient rulers that they prohibited all modes but those which contributed to the enchantment of their realms. Plato himself said that forms of music proceed and determine forms of government."
John Michell, Twelve Tribe Nations:
“ancient rulers specified certain lawful scales that had to be followed in all musical compositions. The reason for this was that they recognized music as the most influential of all arts, appealing directly to the human temper, and thus a potential cause of disturbance in their carefully ordered canonical societies....
"If only we knew the true canonical forms of music, says the Athenian, there could be no valid objection to making them compulsory by law..
"The mythological account of social origins, which naturally appeals to poets, identifies the first human rulers as the Orphic bards, who kept order by music alone, enchanting whole countries with a cycle of songs in harmony with the changing seasons. Plato in Critias says that these rulers were divine: “They did not use physical means of control, like shepherds who direct their flock with blows, but brought their influence to bear on the creature’s most sensitive part [which Plato elsewhere states to be susceptibility to music], using persuasion as the steersman uses the helm, to direct the mind and so guide the whole mortal creature.”
"Thereafter, so it is said, arose a caste of priests and law-giving Druids, who reduced the bardic chants to a strict canon and enforced by violence the laws that previously had been gently uttered and spontaneously obeyed. Thus was the gold of primeval times diluted with baser metal, a process that seemingly reflects the change from nomadic life and the reign of free spirit to settled communities under the rule of law....
"The institution of the temple was an attempt to perpetuate those legendary days when government was conducted through the influence of music rather than by means of a rigid code of law. “A relic of those days may be seen in the tradition of the Perpetual Choirs of Britain....
"a revival program aimed at restoring the musical enchantment with which the ancient bards held a whole country in harmony with the heavens...
"Encoded in Timaeus’s brief history of creation is the essential knowledge that Plato distilled through his study of traditional science. Among its contents are the canon of musical harmony that determined the forms of government in the ancient world..."
Homer’s epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey, were songs. See Albert Lord, “The Singer of Tales.” These songs formed the foundation of ancient Greek education (“paideia”). So, yes, music is central to civilzed ways of living. Great piece.
This is a wonderful subject and I’m excited to read more of your research and findings. Have you explored any Native American theories of sound? My mother studied with Joseph Rael (founder of Sound Peace Chambers and author of many books on sound healing and ceremony), and she helped people formulate personal power songs based on his an other ancient sound healing practices.
Possibly a wild goose chase, but Triptolemos (the male god/wheat head) in the Eleusinian mysteries was considered by some to be the ancestor of Law giving, and the mysteries were saturated in song (Homeric Hymn to Demeter is the famous touchstone) -- speaking of raising the dead!
This is fascinating but not surprising. We are, in essence, spiritual beings, and music is a spiritual activity. It reaches us where we're most vulnerable. If we heard laws (or anything else) sung, they would sink deeply into us. Also, I believe, if they were bad laws they would not resonate with us and we would recognize them as bad. (Interesting word, resonate)
In addition, we remember songs better than anything spoken. Most of us could sing the songs we learned as children, though we wouldn't remember the names of our childhood friends. When I was a child, we learned our times tables through chanting, and we all know the alphabet song. As an interesting side note, in The Silmarilion, Tolkien wrote of the creation of the world done by singing it into existence. It's a beautiful, lyrical piece of writing.
A couple of months ago I read an interesting account of how, when the Gregorian chants were changed, the monks began leaving the order. Apparently the original chants invigorated them so they could withstand the long hours of hard work, and the revised chants didn't. Alas, I can't find that reference now.
Great article. Even in India, where I come from, all the ancient literature, right from Vedas that constitute the basis of Hindu belief, to Manusmriti that lists all the laws and rules to be followed, were written as poems and were intended to be sung in definite ways. Still in rituals, ancient Mantras are sung by trained priests. That was a custom throughout the ancient world, probably.
As a girl who has spent her entire adult life in court with some of the most legendary attorneys in the world, cases reserved for oil tycoons and celebrities, then on top of that dreams songs... well. I’ll have to read this 400 times and soak it in.
I’ll be scrolling this article during mediation on Wednesday. Perfect distraction. This is amazing timing.
Ted mentioned the Ten Commandments. The Torah has lots of different voices. Some are stories. Some are genealogies. Some are laws. You can read it and study it, but when it's read aloud in the synagogue, it's chanted. And each word has specific symbols called cantillations that guide the melody.
More impressive is the Talmud. When men (mostly) study that in a yeshiva, they chant it aloud. Lots of repetition, I don't understand the purpose but they say it's for purposes of memorization. The Greeks did the same thing in some of their epic poems.
Ted should probably visit a yeshiva to see what I'm talking about. When the place is packed with hundreds of men (again mostly), sitting in pairs or slightly larger groups, chanting the text aloud- well it's something to experience.
Those saying a law doesn't count until it's written are ignoramuses curiously forgetting the time in our history when most things, even those we deem damn important today, were NOT written down. They simply didn't have the technology. We fuss over the Hamurabi code, but don't tell me there was a complete chiseled copy available everywhere the Mesopotamian judges heard disputes.
‘Can you imagine a politician consulting a musician?’ Yes, actually. Popular entertainers have huge political influence. Whenever something politically emotive happens, their opinions are suddenly regarded as hugely significant. Musicians, comedians, novelists (high- and low-brow) are trotted out by the news media to offer an opinion an politicians ignore them at their peril.
I haven't read Mr. Gioia's book yet. But chant music forms are undoubtedly a mnemonic, and cultures without the written word still use them, or at least remember them today as transmitters of their religious/cultural concepts.
Jewish prayer and Jewish law are inextricably related. Prayers--I.e.laws--have been sung from the beginning
Ted --
I suspect you have checked out the work of Ernest MacClain. If not, you might find his investigations into the connections between ancient music theory, mythology, philosophy, and sacred texts right up your alley.
https://ernestmcclain.net/bibliography/
https://ernestmcclain.files.wordpress.com/
2017/05/plato_optimized.pdf
Jocelyn Godwin has also written extensively on music and renaissance hermeticism:
https://www.amazon.com/Harmony-Spheres-Pythagorean-Tradition-Music/dp/0892812656
I am very excited by your new project and eagerly await future installments.
Not to be too cheeky, but this could account for all the lawyers I know who sing in bands and think they are rock stars.
Re: authorities of antiquity consulting musicians on matters of importance ---Manly P. Hall, in his book Pathways to Philosophy, describes the medieval Troubadours as being the only ones in the royal court (besides the Jester) who could contradict the King, ridicule the nobles, and criticize the policies of the time.
As far as Vico being the embodiment of Chaos, as Ortega y Gasset maintains-- Edward Lorenz' Butterfly Effect postulates that what we call 'chaos' is actually a deterministic series which can be understood, but only IF the initial conditions of the sequence are understood in their entirety.
Moreover, I believe Vico's assertion that the earth was once populated with a race of giants has been proposed by several modern theorists. In any case, as my Auntie used to say: "Even a stopped clock is right twice a day."
"Orpheus ruled a harmonious kingdom by music alone, and the power of music was so well known to ancient rulers that they prohibited all modes but those which contributed to the enchantment of their realms. Plato himself said that forms of music proceed and determine forms of government."
John Michell, Twelve Tribe Nations:
“ancient rulers specified certain lawful scales that had to be followed in all musical compositions. The reason for this was that they recognized music as the most influential of all arts, appealing directly to the human temper, and thus a potential cause of disturbance in their carefully ordered canonical societies....
"If only we knew the true canonical forms of music, says the Athenian, there could be no valid objection to making them compulsory by law..
"The mythological account of social origins, which naturally appeals to poets, identifies the first human rulers as the Orphic bards, who kept order by music alone, enchanting whole countries with a cycle of songs in harmony with the changing seasons. Plato in Critias says that these rulers were divine: “They did not use physical means of control, like shepherds who direct their flock with blows, but brought their influence to bear on the creature’s most sensitive part [which Plato elsewhere states to be susceptibility to music], using persuasion as the steersman uses the helm, to direct the mind and so guide the whole mortal creature.”
"Thereafter, so it is said, arose a caste of priests and law-giving Druids, who reduced the bardic chants to a strict canon and enforced by violence the laws that previously had been gently uttered and spontaneously obeyed. Thus was the gold of primeval times diluted with baser metal, a process that seemingly reflects the change from nomadic life and the reign of free spirit to settled communities under the rule of law....
"The institution of the temple was an attempt to perpetuate those legendary days when government was conducted through the influence of music rather than by means of a rigid code of law. “A relic of those days may be seen in the tradition of the Perpetual Choirs of Britain....
"a revival program aimed at restoring the musical enchantment with which the ancient bards held a whole country in harmony with the heavens...
"Encoded in Timaeus’s brief history of creation is the essential knowledge that Plato distilled through his study of traditional science. Among its contents are the canon of musical harmony that determined the forms of government in the ancient world..."
John Michell, The Dimensions of Paradise
Homer’s epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey, were songs. See Albert Lord, “The Singer of Tales.” These songs formed the foundation of ancient Greek education (“paideia”). So, yes, music is central to civilzed ways of living. Great piece.
This is a wonderful subject and I’m excited to read more of your research and findings. Have you explored any Native American theories of sound? My mother studied with Joseph Rael (founder of Sound Peace Chambers and author of many books on sound healing and ceremony), and she helped people formulate personal power songs based on his an other ancient sound healing practices.
Also interesting: writing about dreams may be verboten, but not if it's a song.
Beautifully elaborated.
Possibly a wild goose chase, but Triptolemos (the male god/wheat head) in the Eleusinian mysteries was considered by some to be the ancestor of Law giving, and the mysteries were saturated in song (Homeric Hymn to Demeter is the famous touchstone) -- speaking of raising the dead!
This is fascinating but not surprising. We are, in essence, spiritual beings, and music is a spiritual activity. It reaches us where we're most vulnerable. If we heard laws (or anything else) sung, they would sink deeply into us. Also, I believe, if they were bad laws they would not resonate with us and we would recognize them as bad. (Interesting word, resonate)
In addition, we remember songs better than anything spoken. Most of us could sing the songs we learned as children, though we wouldn't remember the names of our childhood friends. When I was a child, we learned our times tables through chanting, and we all know the alphabet song. As an interesting side note, in The Silmarilion, Tolkien wrote of the creation of the world done by singing it into existence. It's a beautiful, lyrical piece of writing.
A couple of months ago I read an interesting account of how, when the Gregorian chants were changed, the monks began leaving the order. Apparently the original chants invigorated them so they could withstand the long hours of hard work, and the revised chants didn't. Alas, I can't find that reference now.
Great article. Even in India, where I come from, all the ancient literature, right from Vedas that constitute the basis of Hindu belief, to Manusmriti that lists all the laws and rules to be followed, were written as poems and were intended to be sung in definite ways. Still in rituals, ancient Mantras are sung by trained priests. That was a custom throughout the ancient world, probably.
I feel like I’m on acid reading this article.
As a girl who has spent her entire adult life in court with some of the most legendary attorneys in the world, cases reserved for oil tycoons and celebrities, then on top of that dreams songs... well. I’ll have to read this 400 times and soak it in.
I’ll be scrolling this article during mediation on Wednesday. Perfect distraction. This is amazing timing.
disclaimer- I'm not religions in the slightest.
Ted mentioned the Ten Commandments. The Torah has lots of different voices. Some are stories. Some are genealogies. Some are laws. You can read it and study it, but when it's read aloud in the synagogue, it's chanted. And each word has specific symbols called cantillations that guide the melody.
More impressive is the Talmud. When men (mostly) study that in a yeshiva, they chant it aloud. Lots of repetition, I don't understand the purpose but they say it's for purposes of memorization. The Greeks did the same thing in some of their epic poems.
Ted should probably visit a yeshiva to see what I'm talking about. When the place is packed with hundreds of men (again mostly), sitting in pairs or slightly larger groups, chanting the text aloud- well it's something to experience.
Those saying a law doesn't count until it's written are ignoramuses curiously forgetting the time in our history when most things, even those we deem damn important today, were NOT written down. They simply didn't have the technology. We fuss over the Hamurabi code, but don't tell me there was a complete chiseled copy available everywhere the Mesopotamian judges heard disputes.
‘Can you imagine a politician consulting a musician?’ Yes, actually. Popular entertainers have huge political influence. Whenever something politically emotive happens, their opinions are suddenly regarded as hugely significant. Musicians, comedians, novelists (high- and low-brow) are trotted out by the news media to offer an opinion an politicians ignore them at their peril.
I haven't read Mr. Gioia's book yet. But chant music forms are undoubtedly a mnemonic, and cultures without the written word still use them, or at least remember them today as transmitters of their religious/cultural concepts.