Document Type
Article
Publication Date
3-12-2015
Department
Music
Keywords
music education, Augustine, De Musica, Neoplatonism, general education program, Dordt College
Abstract
Augustine’s De musica is all that remains of his ambitious plan to write a cycle of works describing each of the liberal arts in terms of Christian faith and is actually unfinished; whereas the six books extant today primarily examine rhythm, Augustine intended to write about melody also. The sixth book of De musica was better known in late Antiquity and the Middle Ages than the first five, and it takes up philosophical questions of aesthetics related to the proportionate ordering discernable throughout creation. After a brief introduction summarizing De musica’s content and its importance in subsequent Christian writings, my presentation outlines and explains how I have used this document in my own music classes. For example, my students learn that a vital notion in Augustine’s writings, and in Neoplatonism more broadly, is the spiritual benefit of academic study. That is, through study of music, one gains insight into the created order, but, more importantly, one’s soul is strengthened and trained to perceive higher realities of the cosmos such as the ordering of the planetary spheres and the progression of celestial hierarchies, which span the spiritual distance from God to humanity.
Source Publication Title
Religions
Publisher
MDPI
Volume
6
First Page
211
DOI
10.3390/rel6010211
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
MacInnis, J. (2015). Augustine’s De Musica in the 21st Century Music Classroom. Religions, 6, 211. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel6010211
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