This collection of interdisciplinary and multicultural essays takes a novel approach to the ancient theory of the Harmony of the Spheres and the notion of musical harmony.
The idea of the harmony of the spheres is an old and venerable one, finding a parallel between the orderly nature of the cosmos and that of music. Wherever there is discussion of order, number, and frequency, connections to music are close at hand.
Modern physics, while on the surface a long way from such ideas, tells a not dissimilar story. Here all things are in motion, ever oscillating, and since sound is a kind of vibration, we have the harmony of spheres built in from the ground up. There is a rhythm to the processes in nature too, from the planetary orbits down to the periodicity of atoms, to the beat of the heart and the circadian cycle. Harmony and rhythm seem to push through into the social world too, offering analogies for ordering (or disordering) societies. Therapeutic connections to health are becoming more apparent, with music able to control many bodily functions via the linkages between brain, heart, lungs, and other systems, which can treat illnesses caused by stress - or, inversely, music might trigger stress.
This volume presents both old and new approaches to the idea of the harmony of spheres, alternately returning to and revitalizing ancient ideas and taking entirely novel perspectives. Anchored in classical philosophy and religious sources, reflecting Muslim, Jewish, Sufi, Aboriginal, Alchemical/Hermetic/Occult, Kabbalistic, and Zoroastrian thought, this comprehensive work marks a timely reassessment of a perennial idea.
List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Editors' Introduction I. Early, Medieval, and Renaissance 1. The Harmony of the Spheres in Late Antiquity and the Early Medieval Period in the East Ken Parry (Macquarie University, Australia) 2. Music and Theoretic Awakening from Plato to Augustine Eva Anagnostou-Laoutides (Macquarie University, Australia) 3. Apollo, The Sirens, and The Pregnant Weaver. Marsilio Ficino on Heavenly Music and Human Fate Anna Correas (Ralston College, Georgia) II. Harmony, Disharmony, and the Demonic 4. Musicriminology: Disharmony, Dissent, and Dissonance Murray Lee (University of Sydney, Australia) 5. Music as Harmony of Ontological Spheres: The Demonic in the Age of Artificial Intelligence Goetz Richter (University of Sydney, Australia) III. Health and Well-being 6. Music and Health: Embracing the Ineffability of Sound and Why It Matters Ange Weinrabe (University of Sydney, Australia) & Eran Asoulin (Independent Scholar, Australia) 7. Disciplining Harmony: Disciplining Harmony: a transdisciplinary historical interrogation of the ‘disciplining’ of music in education, and its impact on music participation in society Georgia Pike-Rowney (Australian National University, Australia) IV. Perspectives on Space and Spheres 8. Bach and the Planets Madeleine Easton (Bach Akademie Australia, Australia) 9. Reimagining the Music of the Spheres: An Art–Science Collaboration Kim Cunio (Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand), Nigel Meredith (British Antarctic Survey, UK), & Diana Scarborough (Independent Scholar,UK) 10. Celestial Harmonies of Sky Country in Australia and Oceania Duane Hamacher (University of Melbourne, Australia), Rachel Morgain (University of Melbourne, Australia), & Gerhard Wiesenfeldt (University of Melbourne, Australia) V. Esoteric Aspects 11. Music and the Sphere in Persian Unified Creative Practice Malek Mohammadi Nejad Charghouyeh (Australian National University, Australia) 12. Trinity and Quaternity from Kepler-Fludd to Pauli-Jung Harald Atmanspacher (ETH Zurich, Switzerland) 13. Music, Immortality, and the Soul Dean Rickles (University of Sydney, Australia) List of Contributors Index
Ken Parry is Honorary Senior Research Fellow in the Department of History and Archaeology at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. He is the author of Depicting the Word: Byzantine Iconophile Thought of the Eighth and Ninth Centuries (1996), editor of several books including The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Patristics (2015), and founding editor (2012) of the Texts and Studies in Eastern Christianity series. Dean Rickles is Professor of History and Philosophy of Modern Physics and a co-director of The Centre for Time at the University of Sydney, Australia. He is editor of The Routledge Series on Philosophy of Physics and Mathematics and author of many books, including Life is Short: An Appropriately Brief Guide to Making it More Meaningful (2022), Dual-Aspect Monism and the Deep Structure of Meaning (co-authored with Harald Atmanspacher, 2022), and Covered with Deep Mist: The Development of Quantum Gravity (2020).
Reviews for Harmony of the Spheres: Ancient and Recent Perspectives
In this rich and wide-ranging book, historians, musicians, philosophers and scientists explore the inspirational power of the idea of the harmony of the spheres through the ages, from the Greek Pythagoreans to today, in Eastern and Western cultures, as a vision of the universe and of how humans can better live in it. * Dominic J. O'Meara, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, Université de Fribourg, Switzerland * This collection fulfills, and exceeds, my hopes of fifty years ago: that the learned world would give serious attention to the esoteric aspects of music, not only with scholarly expertise but respecting its status as “a window into the heavenly order of things”--with all the meanings that the phrase implies. These authors wonderfully combine the two virtues. They represent many disciplines, scientific, humanistic, and creative, and show that the window has opened in cultures far beyond the Eurosphere, from prehistoric antiquity up to the latest cosmologies. Like players in an orchestra, their disparate gifts and viewpoints form a complex harmony that both delights and challenges one's expectations. * Joscelyn Godwin, author of Harmonies of Heaven and Earth: Mysticism in Music from Antiquity to the Avant-Garde (1987) *
