Music  -  The Madness of the Muses  

The ancients played instruments, sang hymns and rustic tunes, danced for the gods and for pleasure. Apollo gave music to mankind and David sang his psalms. Everyone from Richard the Lionheart to a friend has a go at a tune. Why do we make music and sing? It seems that speech can convey much of what we wish to communicate, but when we sing we seem to move to a level that also transmits the soul of what we feel. Music takes many forms which we like to categorise as ethnic, classical, techno etc. etc. but while all might not speak to us individually, music of one sort or another does form part of the life of most human beings and has always done so. It has been said that music is as old as civilisation, as old as man, or even older. Birds are known to create their own song and they pre-dated us by millions of years. From cave paintings dating back some 40,000 years we see our ancestors dancing. Perhaps it began with percussion, a reed blown or whatever, but soon we find stringed instruments and there are many examples excavated or represented in ancient temples and on discovered artefacts.

One of the overpowering images I have of a great lost love, which appeared to suit him, is that of a single musical note. Not the sound, because that would be a complete Mahler Symphony, but the appearance of one solitary, little crotchet. He danced, he sang, and his body had a flow of graceful proportions that moved and pounced like a piece of music that stirs the imagination and passions. To look at him was like looking at a note on a page that is waiting to be brought forth, producing glorious sounds or feelings that will make the world want to dance or sing. When he created music of his own it had an originality that spoke immediately to me. When he sang, his voice  came from a strange and lonely place deep within his soul. There was pain, there was anguish there was a soul in the notes he screamed at you. Dance to him was such a personal activity. He danced for himself and there was no inhibition as his body used to leap and throw the passions within him out into the world and at himself. For him, just to stand was an expression of beauty. A fine, delicate piece for solo instrument, incomplete and tantalising. In contrast to the way he expressed himself in dance and song, he walked with an air of choreographed restraint, and spoke in a voice that was soft and lyrical, with the modulations of a Romantic string trio.

Mythological Beginnings

There were nine Muses (daughters of Jupiter and Mnemosyne). Calliope - the muse of epic poetry, Clio - the muse of history, Euterpe - the muse of lyric poetry, Melpomene - the muse of tragedy, Terpsichore - the muse of choral dance and song, Erato - the muse of love poetry, Polyhymnia - the muse of sacred poetry, Urania - the muse of astronomy and Thalia - the muse of comedy.

Mercury invented the Lyre by drilling holes in a tortoise shell and adding nine strings in honour of the nine Muses. He gave the Lyre to Apollo. The Muse Calliope bore a son, Orpheus. Some say Apollo was his father or his lover and had taught him to play the lyre which he subsequently left him as a love gift when they parted. Orpheus' playing was so beautiful it entranced both man and beast and because of his explorations and the wisdom he gathered, he set about changing his people to appreciate music, abandon bloody sacrifice and also taught the love of boys. Women were denied this knowledge, banned from the mysteries and so sought revenge on the boy lovers.  When he joined the Argonauts his strings helped launch the Argo, his music set the rowing pace and his gentle song put the guarding Dragon to sleep when they found the Golden Fleece. Returning from the voyage he married Euridice, but sadly she died, so he followed her to  Hades, the underworld, and his singing bought her release, but when, against warnings, he looked at her at the moment of escape he broke a vow and she once again returned to the shadows of the underworld. He gave up the love of women and became a priest of Apollo and his favourite love was Calais the Son of the North Wind who had wings on his head and feet. They had met on the Argo. At the time of the festival of Dionysus the Thracian women broke into the temple and murdered the men including Orpheus. Their screams had drowned out his music and thus being no longer protected, he was torn to pieces and the lyre was thrown into the river. It was said that a nightingale sings more sweetly at his grave and also that Zeus sent a vulture to retrieve the Lyre, which he placed among the stars as the constellation Lyra. Others say that it was the Nine Muses who carried the Lyre into the heavens. Lyra is next to Hercules and it is suggested that it was placed there to sooth him.

Ancient Cultures

The Didgeridoo is the sacred sound and the spirit of Australia. Today it accompanies all ceremonial, sacred and festive occasions throughout the country. This unique instrument originated in Arnhem Land, in the north of Australia, and has endured from the past and captured the soul of the modern Australian.

There is evidence from Slovenia that 50,000 years ago the Neanderthals constructed a flute from prehistoric cave bear bone. "The flute of course was broken in some ways, but sufficiently intact that you could make a guess at what kind of a flute it might have been....the dexterity as well as the intellectual insight to construct such a thing is quite considerable.." Doctor Jelle Atema- a biologist and flautist has reconstructed such items from pre-history.

An ancient Egyptian Sistrum and the earliest complete and playable musical instruments - 9000 year old bone Flutes from China. 

Music pervaded ancient Greek culture. It accompanied festivals both religious and celebratory, funerals, banquets, for the army and in the home. It was an integral part of the education of boys. The great epics of Homer were chanted and dancing. The lyre and the flute predominated and developed into more complex instruments with the addition of extra strings or reed pipes and holes. Like today, music consisted of many modes (scales- harmoniai).  Although singing followed the melodic line the instrumentation grew in complexity, and embellishment from the written note soon developed, but earned the disapproval of the conservative Athenians including Plato.

In ancient Rome music and musicians were regarded with contempt and music was not part of the standard education of boys. Musicians formed guilds which were originally for self protection. However music must have had some importance as there was much consternation in 311BC, as Livy describes, when the flute players went on strike. The late republic saw an encouragement of music and then the Emperors Augustus and Nero did much to encourage competition. Domitian built a music hall in the centre of Rome for these contests. Music accompanied pantomimes and there were also concerts by large ensembles held in the theatres as well as the wide spread use of music at dinners and banquets. Apart from the lyre and flute, an Etruscan influence introduced trumpets and horns particularly for funeral rituals.

Middle Ages

Hildegard von Bingen

'Sibyl of the Rhine '

Hildegard von Bingen was an amazing woman; powerful, intellectual, writer, visionary and one of the first composers  known and even today her beautiful music wins awards.

'Up to my fifteenth year I saw much, and related some of the things seen to others, who would inquire with astonishment, whence such things might come. I also wondered and during my sickness I asked one of my nurses whether she also saw similar things. When she answered no, a great fear befell me. Frequently, in my conversation, I would relate future things, which I saw as if present, but, noting the amazement of my listeners, I became more reticent.'

Abbess Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) wrote works of theology, was respected by, consulted by and advised bishops, popes, and kings. She used natural objects for healing, and wrote treatises on natural history and medicinal uses of plants, animals, trees and stones. She is the first composer whose biography is known. She founded a convent, where her musical plays were performed. Hildegard has been beatified, and is frequently referred to as St. Hildegard. Her story is an inspirational account of a spirit and intellect overcoming social, physical, cultural and gender barriers.  

Hildegard was born a noble family in Bockelheim on the Nahe,. As the tenth child she was dedicated at birth to the church. At three she had visions of luminous objects, and did so for many years. At eight she was sent to an anchoress named Jutta to receive a religious education. Jutta rejected  all worldly temptations dedicate her life to god and instead of entering a convent she became an anchoress. Anchors of both sexes, though largely women, led an ascetic life, shut off from the world inside a small room, usually adjacent to a church so that they could follow through a small window as their link to the rest of humanity. Food was passed through the window and refuse taken out. Most of their time would be spent in prayer, contemplation, or solitary activities, like stitching and embroidering. Anchors received their last rights from the bishop before their locking themselves away, complete with a burial laid out on a bier. Jutta's cell had a door through which Hildegard and a dozen other girls entered. Hildergard’s education was rudimentary, and she could not but feel the inadequacy. She learned to read Psalter in Latin but never mastered it so she used secretaries to help her describe her visions. The anchorage was attached to the church of the Benedictine monastery at Disibodenberg. After Jutta's death; Hildegard, now 38, became head of the growing convent. Hildegard had confided of her visions to Jutta and another monk, Volmar, who was to become her lifelong secretary. However, in 1141, Hildegard had a vision that changed her life. God gave her instant understanding of the meaning of religious texts, and commanded her to write down everything in her visions.

  ‘When I was 42 years and 7 months old, the heavens were opened and a blinding light of exceptional brilliance flowed through my entire brain. And so it kindled my whole heart and breast like a flame, not burning but warming... and suddenly I understood of the meaning of expositions of the books.... But although I heard and saw these things, because of doubt and low opinion of myself and because of diverse sayings of men, I refused for a long time a call to write, not out of stubbornness but out of humility, until weighed down by a scourge of god, I fell onto a bed of sickness.'

The 12th century was a time of schisms and she wanted her visions to be approved by the Church, though she herself never doubted the divine origins to her visions. She wrote to St. Bernard who brought it to the attention of Pope Eugenius, who recommended she continue her writings. She wrote ‘Know the Ways of the Lord’ and her fame spread through Germany and beyond. Around 1150 Hildegard moved her convent from Disibodenberg to Bingen on the banks of the Rhine. She founded another convent, Eibingen, across the river from Bingen. She wrote music and texts to her songs, mostly plainchant for The Virgin Mary. Her music was performed in her convent. She wrote major works of visionary Writing. Her scientific views were derived from the ancient Greek cosmology of the four elements-fire, air, water, and earth-with their complementary qualities of heat, dryness, moisture, and cold, and the corresponding four humours in the body-choler, blood, phlegm, and melancholy.

Hildegard's positive view of sexual relations seem to contain the first description of the female orgasm.

'When a woman is making love with a man, a sense of heat in her brain, which  brings with it sensual delight, communicates the taste of that delight during  the act and summons forth the emission of the man's seed. And when the seed  has fallen into its place, that vehement heat descending from her brain draws  the seed to itself and holds it, and soon the woman's sexual organs contract,  and all the parts that are ready to open up during the time of menstruation   now close, in the same way as a strong man can old something enclosed in his  fist.'

She also wrote that strength of semen determined the sex of the child, while the amount of love and passion determine child's disposition. She stated that the worst case, where the seed is weak and parents feel no love, leads to a bitter daughter.

 1.The new Abbey of St. Hildegard of Eibingen was built in 1900 to 1904 up the hill above the old monastery by Prince Karl of Lowenstein a leading German Catholic who revived the tradition of Hildegard's convents at the historic site. She was  buried in St. Rupertus 2. but after its destruction her remains were moved to St Rochus 3. 

She describes music as the means of recapturing the original joy and beauty of paradise. According to her before the Fall, Adam had a pure voice and joined angels in singing praises to god. After the fall, music was invented and musical instruments made in order to worship god. She wrote a single vocal melodic line, common in her time. Her music now revived has become hugely popular.

In the last year of her life, in the cemetery adjoining her convent a young man was buried who had once been excommunicated. The authorities demanded that she have the body removed. Obstinate and independent to the last she refused as the young man had received the last sacraments and was therefore reconciled to the Church. A sentence of interdict was placed on her convent  but she succeeded in having the interdict removed. She died on the Rupertsberg near Bingen in 1179. Hildegard was greatly venerated in life and after death. Her biographer, Theodoric, calls her a saint, and many miracles are said to have occurred through her intercession.  

The reliquary of St. Hildegard

A couple of my favourite CD's  are the hauntingly beautiful songs of "A Feather on the Breath of God' which won the Gramophone Record of the Year and a more New Age interpretation with added percussion 'Vision'

'Underneath all the texts, all the sacred psalms and canticles, these watery varieties of sounds and silences, terrifying, mysterious, whirling and sometimes gestating and gentle must somehow be felt in the pulse, ebb, and flow of the music that sings in me. My new song must float like a feather on the breath of God.'

What is the basis of music? Is it mathematical? Is it divine inspiration? Perhaps from the angels. Does it matter to the majority of us? I think not, unless it is our specialisation. We need know nothing of how it was created to enjoy the rhythm, or the melody, or be transformed by the secret locked within a song.

Updated April 23, 2007