"In the dark something was happening at last. A voice had begun to sing. It was very far away and Digory found it hard to decide from what direction it was coming. Sometimes it seemed to come from all directions at once. Sometimes he almost thought it was coming out of the earth beneath them. Its lower notes were deep enough to be the voice of the earth herself. There were no words. There was hardly even a tune. But it was, beyond comparison, the most beautiful noise he had ever heard. It was so beautiful he could hardly bare it. The horse seemed to like it too; he gave the sort of whinny a horse would give if, after years of being a cab-horse, it found itself back in the field where it had played as a foal, and saw someone whom it remembered and loved coming across the field to bring it a lump of sugar.
(...)
"Then two wonders happened at the same moment. One was that the voice was suddenly joined by the other voices; more voices than you could possibly count. They were in harmony with it, but far higher up the scale: cold, tingling, silvery voices. The second wonder was that the blackness overhead, all at once, was blazing with stars. They didn't come out gently one by one, as they do on a summer evening. One moment there had been nothing but darkness; next moment a thousand, thousand points of light leapt out - single stars, constellations, and planets, brighter and bigger than any in our world. There were no clouds. The new stars and the new voices began exactly at the same time. If you had seen and heard it, as Digory did, you would have felt quite certain that it was the stars themselves that were singing, and that it was the First Voice, the deep one, which had made them appear and made them sing." (C. S. Lewis - "The Chronicles of Narnia" - "The Magician's Nephew" - The Fight at The Lamp-post)
This intriguing and richly portrayed passage describes the creation and founding of the fictional world of Narnia. Throughout the seven books of the series Lewis parallels elements of the Bible, Christian doctrine and the history of the world. This particular initial portion alludes to the Creation of our own world by God.
Interestingly he depicts Narnia as being sung into existence. Whereas in the Bible our world is spoken into it. There is no literal accuracy in his depiction of Biblical events, and many inconsistencies come up through the books, but that is fine when we look at the story as an allegorical reference to religious beliefs. Here he gave way to his own creative scenery where this hypothetical world is being beautifully sung into reality. The idea of other voices joining at a higher pitch, and as consequence of a lower tone, suggests the concept of a harmonic series, where mathematical proportions and exactness show through.
These arithmetical elements were obviously present in the moment of Creation. As the Lord brought forth molecules, plants and other complex structures, mathematical exactness was possibly all around. That must have been no different with sound and music, as the physical aspects of wave propagation were most probably established in the atmosphere's dynamic.
But the spiritual implications of sound as music are far more interesting than the purely physical ones. Martin Luther was apparently an advocate of the fact that the basic ruling attributes of music were established in the process of Creation. He "continued to embrace the concept of music's affective and formative power, based ultimately on a Christian interpretation of the Greek ethos teachings. The order of the natural sound as defined through the mathematical proportions of the intervals was present from the moment of Creation and is thereby an attribute of the Creator. (...) The act of hearing music, of listening to ordered sound, is to resonate with Creation, of which the individual is part. When the human ear perceives the various musical harmonies, it involuntarily recognizes the reality of the Creator's work. The human desire to participate in musical activity is not, therefore, so much a need for self-expression, as the humanists would have it, as it is a longing for and a reflection of a relationship with the Creator. (...) Luther's views on music reflect Augustine's synthesis of Greek music theory with Christian dogma: music not only mirrors the order of the created universe through its own numerical order but can positively affect individuals by audibly 'putting them in touch' with the greater order of Creation. The order or 'music' through which God created the universe thus becomes a means of spiritual growth. Music becomes a theological statement which allows it to be used in the struggle against melancholy, depression, and powers of darkness." (Dietrich Bartel - "Musica Poetica" - Luther on Music: A Theological Basis for German Baroque Music - pp. 5-6)
Both Luther and Lewis wrote a considerable amount of valuable material on Christianity. But what we can understand here is that the phenomenon of music could be (and probably is) more than a coincidental consequence, as the humanists would put it. Our world was surely not sung into existence, but the fundamental elements of music were certainly present throughout Creation, and this is one more strong evidence when it comes to understanding why it has such an impact on us as spiritual (and created) beings. ❦
(...)
"Then two wonders happened at the same moment. One was that the voice was suddenly joined by the other voices; more voices than you could possibly count. They were in harmony with it, but far higher up the scale: cold, tingling, silvery voices. The second wonder was that the blackness overhead, all at once, was blazing with stars. They didn't come out gently one by one, as they do on a summer evening. One moment there had been nothing but darkness; next moment a thousand, thousand points of light leapt out - single stars, constellations, and planets, brighter and bigger than any in our world. There were no clouds. The new stars and the new voices began exactly at the same time. If you had seen and heard it, as Digory did, you would have felt quite certain that it was the stars themselves that were singing, and that it was the First Voice, the deep one, which had made them appear and made them sing." (C. S. Lewis - "The Chronicles of Narnia" - "The Magician's Nephew" - The Fight at The Lamp-post)
This intriguing and richly portrayed passage describes the creation and founding of the fictional world of Narnia. Throughout the seven books of the series Lewis parallels elements of the Bible, Christian doctrine and the history of the world. This particular initial portion alludes to the Creation of our own world by God.
Interestingly he depicts Narnia as being sung into existence. Whereas in the Bible our world is spoken into it. There is no literal accuracy in his depiction of Biblical events, and many inconsistencies come up through the books, but that is fine when we look at the story as an allegorical reference to religious beliefs. Here he gave way to his own creative scenery where this hypothetical world is being beautifully sung into reality. The idea of other voices joining at a higher pitch, and as consequence of a lower tone, suggests the concept of a harmonic series, where mathematical proportions and exactness show through.
These arithmetical elements were obviously present in the moment of Creation. As the Lord brought forth molecules, plants and other complex structures, mathematical exactness was possibly all around. That must have been no different with sound and music, as the physical aspects of wave propagation were most probably established in the atmosphere's dynamic.
But the spiritual implications of sound as music are far more interesting than the purely physical ones. Martin Luther was apparently an advocate of the fact that the basic ruling attributes of music were established in the process of Creation. He "continued to embrace the concept of music's affective and formative power, based ultimately on a Christian interpretation of the Greek ethos teachings. The order of the natural sound as defined through the mathematical proportions of the intervals was present from the moment of Creation and is thereby an attribute of the Creator. (...) The act of hearing music, of listening to ordered sound, is to resonate with Creation, of which the individual is part. When the human ear perceives the various musical harmonies, it involuntarily recognizes the reality of the Creator's work. The human desire to participate in musical activity is not, therefore, so much a need for self-expression, as the humanists would have it, as it is a longing for and a reflection of a relationship with the Creator. (...) Luther's views on music reflect Augustine's synthesis of Greek music theory with Christian dogma: music not only mirrors the order of the created universe through its own numerical order but can positively affect individuals by audibly 'putting them in touch' with the greater order of Creation. The order or 'music' through which God created the universe thus becomes a means of spiritual growth. Music becomes a theological statement which allows it to be used in the struggle against melancholy, depression, and powers of darkness." (Dietrich Bartel - "Musica Poetica" - Luther on Music: A Theological Basis for German Baroque Music - pp. 5-6)
Both Luther and Lewis wrote a considerable amount of valuable material on Christianity. But what we can understand here is that the phenomenon of music could be (and probably is) more than a coincidental consequence, as the humanists would put it. Our world was surely not sung into existence, but the fundamental elements of music were certainly present throughout Creation, and this is one more strong evidence when it comes to understanding why it has such an impact on us as spiritual (and created) beings. ❦
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