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The Relationship between Neoplatonic Aesthetics and Early Medieval Music Theory: The Ascent to the One (Part 2)

by Glen Wegge       

           Umberto Eco states that the aesthetic experience is an inward turn of the mind.  This inward turn allows a soul to get in touch with the Universal Soul within and begin the process of ascent. Furthermore, he holds that the "aesthetic experience does not mean possessing its object, but contemplating it, observing its proportions, its integrity, its clarity."[1] Contemplation is a product of this inward turn. Eco's assertion that the aesthetic experience is the observation of proportions has special application to music since, in the medieval view, music involves a proportion of numbers. Eco also describes the multi-faceted object of this contemplation. 

Medieval taste, we may conclude, was concerned neither with the autonomy of art nor the autonomy of nature. It involved rather an apprehension of all the relations, imaginative and supernatural, subsisting between the contemplated object and a cosmos which opened on to the transcendent. It meant discerning in the concrete object an ontological reflection of, and participation in, the being and the power of God.[2]

The object of contemplation is not just God but also God's relationship with everything else. Gersh notes that in the mind of a Neoplatonist, "power proceeds from higher principles towards lower and then returns from lower principles to higher in a quasi-circular motion."[3] This suggests an interaction between a soul and the One. Eco's reference above to a "participation in the being and power of God" indicates an ascent to the One by means of philosophy. There, beauty draws a soul observing the One "in the apprehension of all the relations…between the contemplated object and cosmos."

            Beauty can draw the soul despite the soul's madness. This soul madness concurred with the soul's descent from its heavenly state. Adams explains why the soul is attracted to the One despite the discordant state of its madness. 

This concept of Eros or love is closely tied with an idea of hierarchy and ascendance. Things of earth, those which are good and beautiful, lead one to fair practices, fair notions, and ultimately to an idea of absolute beauty and essence of beauty. Eros, then, seems to be a desire which pulls a person toward a goal of absolute beauty, a beauty which is equated with good.[4]

This is Plato's approach to aesthetics, which remained current with the Neoplatonists. Adams is explaining the soul's ascent from things of earth to higher principles: each step along the way, the soul is drawn to the One because of the beauty It contains, and this beauty is qualitatively better at each step. Furthermore, Beauty and Goodness are again equated. The soul loves (Eros) the One, and Beauty draws the soul.

            Eco holds that the soul descends in the form of light and "in neo-Platonism, light descended from above and diffused itself creatively in the world; it gathered and solidified in things."[5] Tatarkiewicz explains that both Plotinus and pseudo-Dionysius base their views on an analogy of aesthetics that uses light.[6] Thus, the re-ascent to the One may be seen as a process of enlightenment or a reintroduction to the beauty that was forgotten at birth. The same symbol of light appears in the Bible where Jesus claims: "…I am the light of the world…."[7]

            Perhaps because of his Christian viewopint, John Scotus Erigena (810-77) saw a connection between Christ’s words and Platonist aesthetics when he equated God, goodness, and light, and also affirmed that the ascent of the soul as a process of enlightenment. 

…one God, one Goodness, one Light, diffused in all things so that they may exist fully, shining in all things so that all people may know and love His beauty, dominating all things so that they may flourish in their full perfection, and so that all may be one in Him. Thus the light of all lights comes from the Father.[8]

Notice that the light descends from the Father (a Neoplatonist would say the One) and a soul may partake of or participate in this light. Erigena's idea that one may "flourish in their full perfection" speaks of a process of enlightenment.

Plotinus, too, asserts that a soul ascends and becomes enlightened. He likewise insists that music draws the soul. 

This natural tendency must be made the starting-point to such a man; he must be drawn by the tone, rhythm and design in things of sense: he must learn to distinguish the material forms from the Authentic-Existent which is the source of all these correspondences and of the entire reasoned scheme in the work of art: he must be led to the Beauty that manifests itself through these forms; he must be shown that what ravished him was no other than the Harmony of the Intellectual world and the Beauty in that sphere, not some shape of beauty but the All-Beauty, the Absolute Beauty; and the truths of philosophy must be implanted in him to lead him to faith in that which, unknowing it, he possesses within himself.[9]

Philosophy is the key that helps a soul "to distinguish the material forms from the Authentic-Existent," facilitating ascent. In the quotation above, Adams asserts that a soul loves the One and is drawn by Beauty. Plotinus, on the other hand, maintained that a soul is drawn by music and design. Both writers express important perspectives of medieval aesthetics. Lippman explains that Beauty, Truth, and Goodness are perceived at once and vary in accordance with a fixed mathematical relationship.[10] Since Love and Beauty are related and the harmony of music is often used (in Neoplatonist texts) as a metaphor for Beauty, we can extrapolate that Adams and Plotinus concur, thus elucidating a close connection between music, Beauty, Truth, and Love. Plotinus’ idea of drawing the soul inward by means of tone is a reference to music and its role in the ascent of the soul.

While Plotinus insisted that music draws the soul, Cassiodorus (ca. 490-583) affirmed that music guides the soul to higher things: "Music is the most pleasant and extremely useful cognition, which both guides our mind to higher things and soothes our ears with its melody."[11] Therefore, to a Neoplatonist, music draws and guides a soul toward the One. Maddox, explaining the ideas of Dahlhaus, supports the supposed role of music in the ascent of the soul. 

Dahlhaus has pointed out that the transience of the actual sounds by which particular pieces of music were expressed makes them less important than the mathematical concepts which underlie them. In Platonic terms then, the "idea" or "form" of music is more permanent and hence more "real" than any particular piece or example of music.[12]

Dahlhaus’ claim that "'form' of music is more permanent and hence more 'real'" was discussed in depth by Eco. Eco neatly tied together Beauty and Goodness, explaining why Form interacts with Beauty, Goodness, and knowledge. 

The beauty and the goodness of a thing are the same, because they are both grounded in form; this was in fact a fairly common view. But a form possesses goodness in so far as it is the object of an appetite, that is, the object of a desire for the realization or the possession of a form, in so far as the form is positive. Whereas beauty subsists in the relations of a form to knowledge alone.[13]

Lippman aligns with Eco concerning the relationship of Beauty and Goodness, but Eco asserts further that goodness and beauty are related because both are grounded in form. As previously stated, Adams holds that Beauty draws the soul to the One. Eco explains that form possesses goodness if it is an object of an appetite (or desire; that is, Eros). These ideas develop previously discussed ideas and may be summarized as follows: Beauty draws the soul and, with the aid of philosophy, Love creates an appetite in the soul for ascent because the soul desires to possess the beauty found in the One -- that is, the relationships found in form.

Adams explains the importance of the relationships found in form or, in other words, mathematics and music in the ascent of the soul. She explains below the importance of mathematics to musical aesthetics throughout the Middle Ages. 

Plato views man as having profound potentiality whereby he can achieve virtue and knowledge by his association with Ideas or significant universals. Man is led in this achievement by the rational elements within him. There are basically two types of learning with which Plato is concerned: first, there is an initial act of sense-perception; second, there is then possible a completion of this act by analytical or comprehensive thought. For example one may use concepts of mathematics to count objects first of all. But then by process of analysis one may then perceive relationships and harmony between these relationships of number. There then is possible a progression whereby we understand harmony of number, then the harmony of soul, then harmony of Universe. By understanding number and relationships of harmony we may straighten out distortions that are inherent in our own humanity and reach accord with the Universe; by such a progression man may reach the highest goals of life.[14]

Since souls are said to have the same proportional relationships as the universe, in this process we may "straighten out distortions;" that is, reach unity with the universe and thus perfect ourselves.

            Boethius (ca. 480-524/6) likewise believed that all things have the same proportional relationships, and divided music into three categories: 1) musica mundana, or the harmony of the spheres, the highest form of music; 2) musica humana, or music of the soul; and 3) musica instrumentalis, man-made music.[15] This division of reality influenced most of the writings of medieval authors after Erigena. Most writers of antiquity alluded to the arrangement of the planets that create heavenly music by means of proportion as these planets journey through space. Plato, Aristides Quintilianus, Boethius, Proclus (Feb. 8, 412-April 17, 485), Iamblichus (ca. 250-d. 326), Nicomachus (fl. 140), and Erigena assigned specific pitches to planets as an explanation of the music of the spheres.[16]  This will be discussed further in Part 3.      

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