Augustine's View of Music

Introduction
In this paper Augustine's view of music will be explored. This investigation shall begin first with an inquiry into Greek philosophical ideas about music which provided the background for Augustine's thinking on the subject. Attention will then turn to a brief overview of earlier Christian writers' approaches to music and its place in Christian worship and their struggle to define appropriate Christian musical practices against those of the pagan cults. It will be seen that music played an important part in Augustine's conversion and early post-baptismal Christian life. It will be shown also that while he was himself profoundly moved by music, Augustine struggled with its proper place in the church since he feared that the beauty of music might serve as a distraction from true spiritual worship of God. Appropriate passages from Augustine's writings on the subject of music will be examined which show his hesitancy toward and eventual acceptance of the use of music in the church. It will be shown also that, particularly in his treatise De Musica, Augustine's background in Greek philosophy provided the framework for his acceptance of music into the church.

Greek philosophy
In Plato's Republic all musical instruments are forbidden except the lyre and cithara.(1) Socrates and Gloucon agree that music has tremendous power for educational purposes. Therefore, they are careful in deciding which types of music should be allowed into the ideal republic.(2) The doctrine of ethos deals with the moral qualities of music and seems to be related to the idea of s cosmic dimension in music discovered by Pythagoras. The doctrine of ethos, however, goes beyond the Pythagorean conception that music merely shares in the greater cosmic order, and holds that it may also affect the universe in some way.(3) Aristotle wrote about the moral influence music may have upon human beings. He observed that music imitates emotions and states of the soul, such as love, hate, bravery, fear, goodwill, and violence. Therefore, as one listens to such music that imitates a certain emotion, one will come to embody that same emotion. If one repeatedly listens to music that inspires base emotions, one's character will be molded to a base form. On the other hand, habitually listening to music that inspires more noble aspects of humanity may positively shape one's character.(4) Both Plato and Aristotle agreed upon the importance of music in education. Proper education was to include a balance of gymnastics and music, of both training for the body and training for the mind. In the Republic Plato stresses the need for balance, since too much music will make a man effeminate and too much gymnastic will make a man uncultivated, unlearned, and violent.(5)

The myth of Apollo and Marsyas may help illustrate ancient Greek attitudes about music. Marsyas and the goddess Cybele came to the city of Nisa and learned of the people's great respect for the musical gifts of Apollo. The people honored Apollo as the one who first brought the music of the harp to them. Marsyas and Apollo then argue over who between them makes the sweetest music. They decide to settle the matter by having a contest in the presence of the people who will determine who has the greater music. Marsyas plays his hornpipe and the people are amazed by its sweetness, as they had never hear such an instrument before. At this the people judged the playing of Marsyas to be more agreeable than that of Apollo. When Apollo's turn came, he sang while accompanying himself on his stringed instrument. Upon hearing this, the people responded by proclaiming that the music of Apollo was indeed greater than that of Marsyas. Marsyas objects to the outcome of the contest. He claimed that Apollo did not compete fairly when he augmented his music by using his voice in addition to his instrument. Apollo replied that it indeed was fair since Marsyas also used his mouth in the blowing of his pipe.(6) According to ancient Greek thinking there are two reasons that Apollo won the contest. First, his instrument is superior since it may be plucked whereas Marsyas' pipes may not. Second, Apollo was able to, and did sing as he played. This story gives an insight into the Greek's understanding of the nature of music.(7)

Pythagoras was said to have discovered music through mathematical calculation in the sixth century B.C.E.. Iamblichus, the fourth century C.E. biographer of Pythagoras, recounts the story of this discovery.(8) One day, as Pythagoras was out walking, he heard familiar harmonic intervals coming from a blacksmith's hammer. He entered the blacksmith's shop to investigate and found that the differences in pitch were related to the differing weights of the hammers. When he returned home Pythagoras experimented with this principle by hanging four strings to a peg in the wall and attaching hammers of different weights to them. He found that the consonant intervals could be reproduced through plucking the strings. Furthermore, Pythagoras discovered that the weights needed to reproduce these intervals were in fixed ratios which one could express using only the numbers one through four. An octave was expressed as the ratio 1:2, the perfect fifth as 3:2, and the perfect fourth as 4:3. For Pythagoras,

"It could be no accident that 1+2+3+4= the sacred number 10. Given their concept of a totally interconnected cosmos, Pythagoras and his followers could seize on these numerical ratios as a revelation of universal order."(9)

Pythagoras and his followers believed that proper music has the ability to express the order the a person's soul and that therefore exposure to the right music could exert a positive moral influence.(10) Following Pythagoras' discovery music was thought of as having a cosmic dimension. The stringed lyre also retained its association with Pythagoras and with his theory linking music and the cosmic order.(11)

Music was in integral part of religious ceremonies from ancient times. The lyre was the instrument most typically associated with the cult of Apollo, whereas the aulos was central in the cult of Dionysus. "Both these instruments probably came into Greece from Asia Minor."(12) In Greek mythology music was thought to be of divine origin. It credits the gods and demigods such as Apollo, Amphion, and Orpheus with the invention of music.(13) Among the stringed instruments of the ancient Greek world were the lyre and the kithara. These instruments typically had five to seven strings and could have as many as eleven. Both instruments were used as solo instruments and for the accompaniment of the singing and recitation of epic poetry.(14) The wind instrument connected with both the singing of the dythramb and with the worship of Dionysus is the aulos, which was a double pipe reed instrument characterized by a "shrill piercing tone."(15) Ancient Greek music was almost always accompanied with words or dancing or both. The melody and rhythm of music and the melody and rhythm of poetry were closely interwoven.(16) Some Greek thinkers saw a connection between music and astronomy. Not only did they see the same mathematical laws governing both musical intervals and heavenly bodies, but also saw a direct correspondence between certain modes or notes and individual planets.(17)

Music in early Christian worship
As Christianity grew among the pagans, ecclesiastical authorities had to struggle increasingly against the influence of pagan cultic rituals and music in Christian worship.(18) Clement of Alexandria waged his own battle against what he considered pagan music. According to Clement, the person who indulges in pagan music and dancing will become morally corrupted, indecent, and rude. He specifically mentions flutes, stringed instruments, and Egyptian krotala, and urges the good Christian to leave these instruments associated with pagan ceremonies to the devotees of those cults. He then completely forbids the use of these instruments in Christian celebrations.(19) Gregory Nazianzus often needed to remind his congregation that old pagan practices were replaced by Christian ones. Christian Hymns were used in place of tambourines and psalms replaced other songs. He tried to impress upon them the superiority of the spiritual joy of those who serve God in truth to the clapping and flute playing of pagan worship.(20)

As did the Neo-Pythagoreans, early Christian thinkers contrasted unity, which they considered good, with duality, which they considered evil. This philosophical framework provided the Christian objection to instrumental music that heterophony was opposed to the Christian idea of divine unity. The antagonism between unity and duality was compared to that of harmony and disharmony. The early church rejected all heterophony since only non-heterophonic harmony could reflect the Christian unity of souls and the unity of the Christian community.(21) Clement of Alexandria uses the analogy of unison singing to illustrate the unity of the Church. He says that many voices are gathered into one in the Church. They are united under one choir director and teacher into one symphov韆 in the praise of God. Clement also rejected all chromatic music and its more complex harmonies for us in Christian worship.(22) Clement rejected the complexity of chromatic music because it was a negative influence on behavior. Such music, he says, leads one to effeminacy and laziness. Only serious and moderate music can protect one's will against reckless behavior.(23)


Too much pleasure
In the Confessions Augustine recounts the tension he felt between the enjoyment of music and the problem of finding too much pleasure in earthly things to the neglect of heavenly things. He admits that music could be for him a serious distraction from the spiritual. In chapter ten of his Confessions Augustine says that music performed by a well trained singer could be captivating to him and that he occasionally found himself giving the music and the musician, "more honour than is fitting."(28) Nonetheless, he assures the reader that he was not completely mesmerized by music and that he could still quit at any time. Following this warning about the danger of the allure of music, he goes on in that same passage to describe the religious good that may come from music. When religious texts are sung well greater religious devotion is inspired, "souls are moved and are more religiously and with a warmer devotion kindled to piety than if they are not so sung."(29) In spite of such praise of religious music, Augustine returns to its dangers and tells of how he had considered banning music from church completely to protect against improper enjoyment of it. He reflects upon the practice of bishop Athanasius of Alexandria who ordered that the cantor of the psalm perform the chant in a manner more closely resembling speaking than singing. "Thus I fluctuate," says Augustine, "between the danger of pleasure and the experience of the beneficent effect...."(30) In the end, however, he allows music in the churches since he acknowledges that it may inspire weaker minds to worship. He confesses the guilt he feels for those times when he was more moved by the song than by its message. Such moments, for Augustine, are worthy of punishment and lead him wish that he had never heard the singer. As Augustine asks for God's forgiveness for this sin, he confesses, "I have become a problem to myself, and that is my sickness."(31)

Elsewhere when discussing whether certain foreign ceremonies are acceptable for inclusion in Christian worship, Augustine commends both hymnody and psalmody as having been taught and practiced by Christ and the disciples. However, in this passage, as in Confessions, he also accepts music only provided that it is used with restraint. To illustrate his position, he compares the pious, moderate hymn singing of North African Catholics with the practice of the Donatists who, "inflame their passions in their revels by the singing of psalms of human composition, which rouse them like the stirring notes of the trumpet on the battle-field."(32)

Augustine's unrest over the proper role of music in the church may be due in some measure to the experience of the power of music in his own life. Augustine recalls in Confessions book three that as a student in Carthage, he was captivated by the theater. During his years with the Manichees, Augustine was sure to have experienced their devotional music.(33) Music also plays an important part in Augustine's own account of his conversion. The voice in the Milanese garden that urged him to take up the volume of Saint Paul and to read was compared to a song in a child's game.

"...suddenly I heard a voice from the nearby house chanting as if it might be a boy or a girl (I do not know which), saying and repeating over and over again 'Pick up and read, pick up and read.' At once ... I began to think intently whether there might be some sort of children's game in which such a chant is used."(34)

The music in Ambrose's church also is important to Augustine's conversion. In Confessions he reminisces about the impact that the music of the Milan church had on him in the early days after his baptism.

"How I wept during your hymns and songs! I was deeply moved by the music of the sweet chants of your Church. The sounds flowed into my ears and the truth was distilled into my heart. This caused the feelings of devotion to overflow. Tears ran, and it was good for me to have that experience."(35)

Augustine tells of the immense personal anguish he experienced over Monica's death at Ostia. He says that he went through the funeral and burial rites for his mother without tears and without comfort. He was neither able to begin to grieve properly nor to find any consolation until he recalled the words of a hymn composed by Ambrose and a favorite of Monica, Deus Creator Omnium. Only after the words of that hymn came to mind did the tears of grief flow and was Augustine able to begin to be healed.(36)

One sees from this that music was a formative influence upon Augustine in his conversion, his early post-baptism Christian life, and in times of personal crisis. The innovative music of Ambrose heightened Augustine's devotion and was a comfort to him in times of distress. In spite of this acknowledged positive aspect of music, Augustine remained distrustful of giving music too prominent a place in Christian worship. This distrust might possibly be the result of his early exposure to music in the theater and in the Manichees, as well as his Neo-Platonist outlook which made him distrustful of the sensible realm.(37)

De Musica
Augustine wrote his treatise De Musica intending it to be part of a series of books on the liberal arts. The work on these studies on the liberal arts was begun in Milan in 387, but was finished only after Augustine's return to Africa.(38) Augustine originally planned De Musica as a twelve book volume. The first six were to deal with rhythm and the second six were to deal with melody though the last six books were never written.(39) It has been shown earlier that Augustine the pastor and bishop struggled over the place of music in the church. He knew of music's power to inspire religious devotion and was personally moved by music, yet he feared that music may draw people away from God through sensual pleasure. Augustine's De Musica may be viewed as an early attempt to justify both his personal attraction to music and the use of music in the church.(40) This work deals with the question of music in Neo-Platonic terms. The science of music in Augustine's world has very little to do with practical concerns of actual music making. The science of music concentrates on moral discernment through the study of number.(41) According to Augustine, music is a science and as such is in the intellect. He says that those who perform music for the stage do not truly understand music, since their desire for applause shows their preference for "...the power of chance and the judgement of the ignorant..." and that they actually "...judge the praise to be better than the song."(42) Not only the content but also the composition of De Musica betrays Augustine's indebtedness to the influence of Greek philosophy. In book one, Augustine defines music, as did his Greek predecessors, as a liberal art. Books two through five are devoted to rhythm, meter and verse. Book six then moves into the realm of metaphysics. The work is presented in the form of a dialog between a teacher and pupil, utilizing a genre popular with many philosophers of the past.(43) Augustine begins book six of De Musica with what sounds somewhat like a repudiation of the first six books when the Master says, "We have delayed long enough and very childishly, too, through five books...,"(44) and that in the sixth book he plans to discuss matters suitable for those more mature in the faith. Thus this paper shall follow the Master's lead and concentrate its discussion of De Musica upon book six.

Book six of De Musica is concerned with sounds, which Augustine equates with numbers, and their relationship to the soul and the eternal realm. "Music, it seems, is but a prompt to have us transport ourselves to eternal numbers, where God is more fully found than in the empirical qualities of the temporal world."(45) Augustine does depart from his Platonic and Plotinian heritage in the discussion of beauty in that he sees, "...not a single kind of beauty emanating from its form, but two kinds of beauty, the mortal beauty of objects and the eternal beauty of God, though God is, of course, the source of both."(46) In book six he divides sound into six classes. First are sounds which are corporeal and can exist alone.(47) The second class (occursores) are those sounds that one actually hears with the ears. The third class (progressores) are sounds as they are active in a person. This class of sounds can move the body and the soul. This movement may be expressed through such activities as dancing or playing an instrument.(48) The fifth and sixth classes of sounds depart from the corporeal realm of the first four and are found in the spiritual. Sounds belonging to the fifth class (numeri recordabiles) are those sounds which reside in one's memory and allow one to remember or reproduce a tune. The sixth class (numeri iudiciales) is that from which all the others are derived. Through this class one is able to judge sounds, and to distinguish good music from bad.(49)

What does Augustine say about the relationship of music to the soul? When sound comes in contact with the ear it is impressed upon the body. Augustine's ideas about bodily pleasure and pain are likely to have come from earlier Greek thinking which believed that the soul always seeks a balance of all the parts within the body. When something happens in the body the soul becomes aware that the balance has been disturbed. The sounding of music in the ear does just that. This causes a problem for Augustine who does not wish to say that the physical realm could ever influence the spiritual since that would make the spiritual subordinate to it.(50) As Augustine says in chapter five of book six, "...there is really nothing called hearing unless something is producing in the soul by the body. But it is very absurd to subordinate the soul like a matter to the body." He resolves the problem by asserting that it is indeed the soul which initiates the action in the body. "I believe, the soul does not receive from the body, but receiving from God on high it rather impresses on the body."(51)

The second part of book, in keeping with the emphasis of the Pythagoreans, discusses ethical matters related to music. A major concern for Augustine in the De Musica is how one is able to discern good music. Good music, for Augustine, is not simply that which is aesthetically pleasing, but music which promotes proper ethics. One may arrive at this ethic if one allows God to act, giving one the ability to perceive music or numbers in accord with God's truth.(52) Echoes of Plotinus and the fall of the soul can be heard in Augustine's approach in the De Musica. Those who approach music only for sensual pleasure do so out of pride. Such pride leads the soul to fall away from contemplation of the higher spiritual things to the lower level of corporeality. As one focuses on bodily pleasure and neglects the contemplation of the divine numbers one is diminished and falls farther away from the One and into the lower numbers.(53) "There is a hierarchy of number from the One Himself down through the numeri. All music, good or bad, contains in some way the divine patterning."(54)

Conclusion
In this paper Augustine's view of music was explored. This exploration began first with an inquiry into Greek philosophical ideas about music which provided the background for Augustine's thinking on the subject. Attention was then turned to a brief overview of earlier Christian writers' approaches to music and its place in Christian worship and their struggle to define appropriate Christian musical practices against those of the pagan cults. It was shown that music played an important part in Augustine's conversion and early post-baptismal Christian life. It was also shown that while he was himself profoundly moved by music, Augustine struggled with its proper place in the church since he feared that the beauty of music might serve as a distraction from true spiritual worship of God. Appropriate passages from Augustine's writings on the subject of music were examined which showed his hesitancy toward and eventual acceptance of the use of music in the church. It was shown also that, particularly in his treatise De Musica, Augustine's background in Greek philosophy provided the framework for his acceptance of music into the church.

Notes
1. Smith, "The Contest of Apollo and Marsyas: ideas about music in the Middle Ages." In By Things Seen, ed. David L. Jeffrey,(Ottawa, Canada: University of Ottawa Press, 1979), 81.

2. Smith, "Contest," 82.

3. Grout, Donald Jay. A History of Western Music, 3d ed. (New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1980), 7.

4. Grout, History, 7-8.

5. Grout, History, 8.

6. Smith, "Contest," 84.

7. Smith, "Contest," 85.

8. Smith, "Contest," 85.

9. Smith, "Contest," 86.

10. Brennan, Brian. "Augustine's De Musica," Vigiliae Christianae 42:3 (September 1988): 271.

11. Smith, "Contest," 86.

12. Grout, History, 3.

13. Grout, History, 3.

14. Grout, History, 3.

15. Grout, History, 3.

16. Grout, History, 5.

17. Grout, History, 6.

18. Quasten, Johannes. Music and Worship in Pagan and Christian Antiquity. Translated by Boniface Ramsey. (Washington, DC: National Association of Pastoral Musicians, 1983), 60.

19. Quasten, Music, 61.

20. Quasten, Music, 62.

21. Quasten, Music, 67.

22. Quasten, Music, 67.

23. Quasten, Music, 68.

24. Quasten, Music, 68.

25. Quasten, Music, 68.

26. Quasten, Music, 68.

27. Quasten, Music, 69.

28. Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo, Confessions 10.33, World's Classics ed. trans. Henry Chadwick (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991,1992), 207.

29. Augustine, Confessions 10.33.

30. Augustine, Confessions 10.33.

31. Augustine, Confessions 10.33.

32. Augustine, Epistle 55.34, In Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, vol. 1, ed. Philip Schaff. (Christian Literature Publishing Company, 1887. Reprint, Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1995), 315.

33. Brennan, "De Musica," 276.

34. Augustine, Confessions 8,12.

35. Augustine, Confessions 9.6.

36. Augustine, Confessions 9.12; Brennan, "De Musica," 269.

37. Brennan, "De Musica," 276.

38. Brennan, "De Musica," 267.

39. Brennan, "De Musica," 270-271.

40. Brennan, "De Musica," 268.

41. Brennan, "De Musica," 271-272.

42. Augustine, De Musica 1.6. Translated by R. C. Taliafero. In The Writings of Saint Augustine. vol. 2, Fathers of the Church. New York: Cima Publishing, 1948.

43. Smith, "Contest," 90.

44. Augustine, De Musica 6.1.

45. Walhout, Donald, "Augustine on the Transcendent in Music," Philosophy and Philosophy 3:3 (Spring 1989): 287.

46. Ellsmere, P. K. "Augustine on Beauty, Art, and God," in Augustine on Music: a series of interdisciplinary essays, ed. by Richard R. La Croix (Lewiston, NY: The Edwin Mellen Press, 1988), 103.

47. Brennan, "De Musica," 273.

48. Meyer-Beyer, Kathi, "Psychologic and Ontologic Ideas in Augustine's De Musica," Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 2:3 (March 1953): 226-227.

49. Meyer-Beyer, "Psychologic," 227.

50. Brennan, "De Musica," 274.

51. Augustine, De Musica 6.4.

52. Brennan, "De Musica," 275.

53. Brennan, "De Musica," 275.

54. Brennan, "De Musica," 275.

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