Respected Australian music therapist/ pianist, Enid Rowe shares her thoughts on the proposition that music is the essential element of the natural order of the universe..

To medieval thinkers, like Pythagoreans before them, the Fathers of the Church and the Schoolmen perceived the universe as essentially musical.

"Musica mundana" (the music of the world or of the spheres), "musica humana" (the music of man) and "musica instrumentalis" (instrumental music, including the voice) were the three kinds of music governing creation.

Music was the very essence of the nature of things. To sing was to align one's body with the laws of nature and one's mind and soul with the laws of God.

For Thomas Aquinas beauty and wholeness had three requisites - perfection, harmony and clarity. These are qualities of the soul. They reflect and are reflected in music, in the body, in society and in the cosmos. The function of music was not to impose humanity's desires on nature, but, through reason, to open human understanding to the natural order.

Enid Rowe
19 August 2008
 

© 2008 Enid Rowe
Enid Rowe LTCL.Dip MTNR, RMT, SRAsT(M)
founder of Nordoff-Robbins in Australia in 1984

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