Boethius Essay Example For Students

Boethius Essay Throughout history, every society has searched for some way to express its feelings and beliefs. Music has been an integral part of virtually every culture, so it is quite natural for people to havewritten about this subject. More literature has survived than actual music, which leaves modernscholars with the job of translating, interpreting, and trying to understand the writings of peopleprior to modern musical notation. Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius wrote and translated manybooks on subjects he felt were important to the education of future generations. Of particularinterest is his book, The Fundamentals of Music (De institutione musica). Even though this bookis no longer used as a basis for music education, it has had a lasting impact on music history andtheory. Boethius was born either in or around Rome sometime around the year 480 AD. His fatherdied when he was only seven, and he was taken in and raised by one of the wealthiest aristocratsof the time, Symmachus. Boethius received an exceptional education, married Symmachussdaughter, and led an esteemed career as a politician, writer, and scholar until he was imprisonedand executed in 524. Boethiuss works may be divided into four categories, in chronologicalorder: didactic works, treatises on the mathematical disciplines; the logical works, in essencetranslations or commentaries on Aristotle, Cicero, and Porphyry; the theological treatises, worksexpounding orthodox Christian doctrine by the philosophical method; and the Consolation ofPhilosophy, a purely philosophical treatise written in prison.1 It is the first category, which dealswith the mathematical disciplines, that contains his Fundamentals of Music. At the time Boethiuswrote these books, music was considered one of the mathematical subjects, along with arithmetic,geometry, and astronomy. Boethius described these disciplines as the Quadrivium, the fourfoldpath to the knowledge of essences- things unaffected by material substance.2 The fact thatmusic was considered one of the mathematical disciplines is interesting to modern people, since itis now considered part of the arts, and on nearly the opposite end of the spectrum from math. Math is now considered strict, predetermined, rigid, and structured, while music is expressive,emotional, and subjective. However, people of the time assumed that the study of music wouldbe limited to the mathematical characteristics of harmonic proportions. In this respect, musicdoes have many characteristics that can be related to math, and it was on these observations thatBoethius based a large part of his Fundamentals of Music. Some people have stated that Boethiuss five books on music are merely translations ofworks by Pythagoras. This could not be true, because Pythagoras left no writings. But they arebased on a strong tradition and on the work of later members of the Pythagorean school; from hiseducation by his father-in-law Symmachus and in Athens Boethius was well acquainted withthese, and it is evident from his writings that he was firmly convinced of the systems validity.3 A large section of Fundamentals of Music deals with musical instruments. Boethius outlines thedevelopment of the tetrachord and other instruments, and describes their relationships tomythological gods and astronomy. Boethius also wrote about the Greek beliefs in various modeshaving different impacts on human beings and their emotions. This was a primitive, but veryintuitive and brilliant observation on the effect music can have on man. Pythgoreans believed, asdid Boethius, that different modes had different results. Some modes indu ce sleep, while otherspurge the stupor and confusion of sleep when they woke up.4 People of Pythagorass time orof Boethiuss era lacked the notation or knowledge of melodic movement to pinpoint exactlywhat qualities of each mode evoked specific feelings. However, the observations made were giantsteps in the proper direction. Nuremberg Trials EssayIn conclusion, though some of Boethiuss theories have not proven to be completely validin the modern practice of music theory, many of his ideas have had a profound and lasting impacton musical thought and history. As long as people remain interested in the development of musictheory and its applications, then Boethiuss work will continue to survive. He has proven,through time, to be one of the most important thinkers and writers to have written on the subjectof music, and he has earned a distinguished place in the study of not just music history, but thehistory of Western civilization. 1858 wordsBibliographyBibliographyBoethius, Anicius Manlius Severinus. Fundamentals of Music. Trans. Calvin M. Bower. Ed. Claude V. Palisca. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989. Bower, Calvin. Boethius, Anicius Manlius Severinus. In The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musician, ed. Stanley Sadie, 2: 844-45. London: Macmillan, 1980. Bray, Roger. Music and the Quadrivium in Early Tudor England. Music and Letters, vol. 76, no. 1 (Feb. 1995), 1-18. Chadwick, Henry. Boethius, the Consolations of Music, Logic, Theology, and Philosophy. New York: Clarendon Press, 1981. Edmiston, Jean. Boethius on Pythagorean Music. The Music Review, vol. 35, no. 3-4 (Nov. 1974): 179-184. Erickson, Raymond. Eugena, Boethius, and the Neapolitanism of Musica and Scholica Enchiriadis. Musical Humanism and Its Legacy. Ed. Nancy Baker and Barbara Hanning. Stuyvesant, NY: Pendragon Press, 1992. 53-78. Maher, Terence. On a Contemporary Boethian Musical Theory. Ann Arbor: University Microfilms International, 1980. Palisca, Claude V. Preface by Series Editor to Fundamentals of Music by Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius. Trans. Calvin M. Bower. ed. Claude V. Palisca. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989. Seaton, Douglas. Ideas and Styles in the Western Musical Tradition. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing Company, 1991. Music Essays