Music in relation to science is a theme that James has explored in
popular articles (Discover, etc.). Here, he contends that, until
the 19th century, music embodied the classic ideals of an ordered
universe - having harmonies among the music of the spheres (musica
mundana), the music of the human organism (musica humana), and
ordinary music-making (musica instrumentalis). In parallel, science
was a noble pursuit aimed at establishing the natural order of
things (embodied, for example, in the Great Chain of Being). James
cites Pythagoras as the prime begetter of these ideas. The
sixth-century Greek thinker espoused a philosophy of the
interrelatedness of all things and a system of dualities (one/many;
odd/even; limited/unlimited, etc.) that led to his elaborate
numerology. Pythagoras is also credited with the discovery of the
ratios (1/2, 2/3, 3/4...) that define the harmonic intervals of the
scale: the octave, the major fifth, the fourth, etc. The tradition
of cosmic harmonies continued through Plato, Plotinus, the
Christian mystics, and the Hermetic cults, with James reminding us
of the links that joined astronomy/astrology and science/alchemy in
the works of Kepler and Newton. In the 19th century came what James
regards as the great anomaly in music history: Romanticism, with
its earthy expression of human passions. Similarly, science
divorced itself from lofty ideals to be measured on the human
scale. Paradoxically, music and science became pursuits of an elite
- a tradition that has continued to the present, albeit with a
reaction to Romanticism in atonality, aleatory music, and other
experiments. Ours is not a happy time, James notes rather sadly,
saying that perhaps we need to be reinfused with cosmic
consciousness....or to seek it outside the concert hall. Doubtless,
experts will accuse the author of overstatement and will find
exceptions and countercurrents; but, overall, his discussion is
lively and stimulating. (Kirkus Reviews)
From the 5th century BC, when Pythagoras first composed his laws of
Western music and science, until the flowering of Romanticism over
2000 years later, scientists and philosophers perceived the cosmos
musically, as an ordered mechanism whose smooth operation created a
celestial harmony - the music of the spheres. The separation of
science and music began with the scientific revolution during the
Renaissance, and reached a peak with Romanticism, which celebrated
what was human, individual and local. 20th-century science and
music, argues Jamie James in this book, have rejected the Romantic
ideal and placed the ultimate focus outside the reach of human
reason once again. The book provides a survey of the history of
science and music, a reassessment of Romanticism and the modernist
reaction to it, and a radical intellectual journey.
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