Music

From Anthroposophy

Aspects

  • All that is musical and that comes to us as tone, comes forth from the spirit world. The tones of the weaving and waves in the spirit world, express themselves in music, in physical tone. These tones work on the etheric body, in truth actually on Man's higher bodily members (as the transformed etheric body is life-spirit or buddhi). (1908-10-26-GA244 - Q&A 172.2)
  • the seven members of the human astral body are interrelated as are the tones of the scale, the various tones of the melody are experienced inwardly in the corresponding member of the astral body. (1914-12-29-GA275)
    • The interval of a third is experienced in the part of the astral body which corresponds to the astral body itself; an interval of a third can correspond either to the astral body or to the sentient soul: in the one case we have the major third and in the other the minor third.
    • A fourth is experienced in the part of the astral body which corresponds to the intellectual soul
    • A fifth is experienced in the part of the astral body which corresponds to the consciousness soul
  • Music is one of the seven liberal arts, and one of the four in the Quadrivium (going back to ancient Greece) as subjects related to 'number' (arithmethic, geometry (number in space), 'harmony' or music (number in time), and astronomy (number in space and time).
  • musical 'scales': pentatonic, diatonic, chromatic.
    • The pentatonic scale only has whole steps and minor thirds between each note, so it has five notes per octave, in contrast to the heptatonic scale, which has seven notes per octave (such as the major scale and minor scale). Pentatonic scales were developed independently by many ancient civilizations and are still used in various musical styles to this day. There are two types of pentatonic scales: those with semitones (hemitonic) and those without (anhemitonic).
    • The diatonic scale has half steps and whole steps between each note. These half steps add tension and a different color.
    • The chromatic scale has twelve pitches, each a semitone above or below its adjacent pitches.The chromatic scale is a set of twelve pitches used in tonal music, with notes separated by the interval of a semitone
    • Note: Indian music uses other concepts such shruti (smallest interval of pitch that the human ear can detect and a singer or musical instrument can produce) and svara (or swara-graam, concept of Indian music comprising seven + five= twelve most useful musical pitches.
Evolutionary
  • In the third cultural age of the sentient soul, the teachers of humanity such as Skythianos and Orpheus taught through music. Music engenders forces which set free in the sentient soul something, which, when it rises into the consciousness and has been worked upon by the spiritual soul, becomes logical thinking. (1909-10-25-GA116)
  • evolving consciousness and the spectrum of elements and ethers
    • experience of the seventh (Atlantean epoch) –> fifth (Postatlantean epoch) -> third (recent in Postatlantean epoch)-> full octave single note
Various
  • composers of classical music: Mozart, Bach, Richard Wagner, Brucker
  • Christ in music (1924-08-22-GA243)
  • music therapy
    • anthroposophic therapeutic singing was first developed by Valborg Werbeck-Svãrdström in collaboration with Rudolf Steiner over 12 years from 1912-1924, further developed by Mrs. Werbeck and shared with Jürgen Schriefer, who furthered the work with o.a. Thomas Adam. Training courses began in the late 1990’s on three continents - see more in 'Further reading' section below
  • other related

Inspirational quotes

attributed to Plato, but no record of this exact phrasing in his works .. seems to be a paraphrase of Plato’s broad philosophy on music as he wrote extensively about music and its influence on the soul a.o. in 'The Republic' where he discusses the moral and educational value of music and emphasizes that music plays a key role in shaping the character and moral virtue of individuals; and that music can harmonize the soul and align individuals with the virtues of justice and goodness.

Music is a moral law. It gives a soul to the Universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, a charm to sadness, gaiety and life to everything. It is the essence of order, and leads to all that is good and just and beautiful.

Novalis

Every disease is a musical problem; every cure is a musical solution.

1906-07-29-GA097

Wagner's music holds within it all the truths that are contained in the Parsifal story. His music is of such a unique character that those who listen to it receive in their ether body quite special vibrations. Therein lies the secret of Wagner's music. One does not need to understand it - not in the least. One receives in one's ether body the benign and healthful effect of the music. And Man's ether body is intimately connected with all the movements and throbbings of the blood

1920-04-21-GA301

The musical part of life is the best evidence ... of the particular relationship of feeling to the rhythmic life of the organism. The imaginative, thinking life connected with the nerve-sense organism perceives the rhythmic life connected with feeling. When we hear something musical, when we give ourselves over to a picture presented in tones, we quite obviously perceive through our senses.

... our breathing inwardly participates in the musical picture ... When we hear a series of tones, we encounter them as breathing human beings. The cerebrospinal fluid is continuously moving up and down.

When we listen to music, the inner rhythm of the liquid moving up and down encounters what occurs within our hearing organs as a result of the tones. Thus there is a continuous clash of the inner vibrating music of our breathing with what happens in the ear when listening to music. Our experience of music exists in the balance between our hearing and our rhythmic breathing.

Beinsa Douno

The new epoch of Love that is coming [editor: Sixth epoch] will give a new impulse to music.

Consider a person who is inclined to do something wrong. And yet, by listening to this new music, this inclination is relinquished.

Music awakens the Divine within people, and they will heed its call.

1904-10-28-GA092

For the fifth epoch music will be not merely art, but the means of expression for quite other things than the purely artistic ...

The most significant impulse by those directly initiated in the fifth epoch will, to begin with, be given solely in the sphere of music.

What has to flow in is not astral, but it is something of great significance in the sphere of the mental life of the fifth epoch ... something which has been called the kundalini fire. It is a force which today still slumbers in Man, but which will gradually gain more and more importance. Today it already has a great importance upon what we perceive through the sense of hearing.

Illustrations

Lecture coverage and references

Overview

The main volume is: GA283 - The Inner Nature of Music and the Experience of Tone

Source extracts

1904-10-28-GA092

see also: Sixth epoch#1904-10-28-GA092 and Kundalini#1904-10-28-GA092

At the beginning of the sixth epoch an influence will have developed, not in higher spheres, but in the sphere of the present-day conscious mind; in the fifth epoch this influence is still in its infancy, but it is nevertheless already developing. It is something which emanates from the musical element. For the fifth epoch music will be not merely art, but the means of expression for quite other things than the purely artistic. Here is something that points to the influence of a specific principle on the physical plane.

The most significant impulse by those directly initiated in the fifth epoch will, to begin with, be given solely in the sphere of music. What has to flow in is not astral, but it is something of great significance in the sphere of the mental life of the fifth epoch. It is something that the human intelligence will come to recognise as important, something which has been called the Kundalini fire. It is a force which today still slumbers in Man, but which will gradually gain more and more importance. Today it already has a great importance upon what we perceive through the sense of hearing.

1906-07-29-GA097

see: Richard Wagner#1906-07-29-GA097

1906-12-03-GA283

1906-11-12-GA283

1906-11-26-GA283

1908-10-26-GA244 - Q&A 172.2

All that is musical and that comes to us as tone, comes forth from the spirit world.

When Man in sleep is enthralled in the spirit world, he lives in the world of tone. These tones he forgets in his normal condition [of waking consciousness]. The musician remembers these, however not consciously.

The tones of the weaving and waves in the spirit world, express themselves in music, in physical tone. These tones work on the etheric body, in truth actually on Man's higher bodily members (as the transformed etheric body is life-spirit or buddhi).

1909-10-25-GA116

quote A - about affecting and teaching through the sentient soul

see full quote on: Orpheus#1909-10-25-GA116

To stimulate the sentient soul and instill into it, so to speak, the power of thought, this Individuality had to work in a very special way. He had to give his instruction, not in conceptions — but through music! Music engenders forces which set free in the sentient soul something, which, when it rises into the consciousness and has been worked upon by the spiritual soul, becomes logical thinking.

1914-12-29-GA275

see full lecture including drawings

For when we know that the astral body is sevenfold in its nature and that it is an organism of inner living impulses, then we shall say to ourselves: Within this astral body, with its sevenfold organisation, individual activities must surely take place between the various members. The part of the astral body that corresponds to the physical body must have a certain interplay with the part that corresponds to the etheric body and with the part that corresponds to the astral body itself, and so on.

These are no mere abstract suppositions; it is quite possible in the human organism for a man to feel inwardly—though more subconsciously than consciously—a movement of that part of the astral body which corresponds to the physical body. And then something may produce another movement which will have to start in that member of the astral body that corresponds to the astral body itself, and so on. This is not a mere theory; it really happens.

Now imagine the seven members of the astral body to be interrelated as are the tones of the scale: tonic, second, third, fourth, etc. If you allow the effect of a melody to work upon you, you will find that your human organisation permits this to occur because the various tones of the melody are experienced inwardly in the corresponding member of the astral body.

  • The interval of a third is experienced in the part of the astral body which corresponds to the astral body itself.
  • A fourth is experienced in the part of the astral body which—well, let us now be more specific—corresponds to the intellectual or mind soul.
  • A fifth is experienced in the part of the astral body which corresponds to the consciousness or spiritual soul.

And remembering that when we divide the human organism more exactly we find it contains nine members, we must, accordingly, structure the astral body in the same way. Instead of saying “the member of the astral body which corresponds to the physical body” when enumerating the various members, I could now say “the member experienced in the tonic”. Instead of “the member of the astral body which corresponds to the etheric body”, I could say “the member experienced in the second”. And instead of saying “the member of the astral body which corresponds to the astral body itself” I could say “the member experienced in the third”.

You can now also see that the existence of the major third and the minor third really corresponds to the incorporation of the astral body in our whole human organisation. If you look up the relevant passage in my book Theosophy you will see that there is an overlapping of what we call the sentient soul on the other. Therefore what I described as an interval of a third can correspond either to the astral body or to the sentient soul: in the one case we have the major third and in the other the minor third.

It is a fact that our ability to experience a musical work of art depends upon this inner musical activity of the astral body: only while we listen to the music with our I we immediately sink the experience into our astral body, into certain realms which are subconscious.

This leads us to a very important fact. Let us look at ourselves as astral beings, as possessors of an astral body: what is our nature in this respect? As astral beings we have been created out of the cosmos according to musical laws. Inasmuch as we are astral beings we are musically connected with the cosmos. We are ourselves an instrument.

1919-12-31-GA320

So you can calculate how quickly the sound advances in air — how far it goes, say, in a second — and you get something like a “velocity of propagation of sound”. This was one of the earliest things to which men became attentive in this domain.

They also became attentive to the so-called phenomena of resonance — sympathetic vibration. Leonardo da Vinci was among the first. If for example you twang a violin-string or the like, and another string attuned to it — or even quite a different object that happens to be so attuned — is there in the same room, the other will begin vibrating too. The Jesuits especially took up the study of these things.

In the 17th century much was done for the science of sound or tone by the Jesuit Mersenne, who made important researches on what is called the ‘pitch’ of a musical note. A note contains three elements. It has first a certain intensity; secondly a certain pitch; thirdly a certain quality or colouring of sound. The problem is to ascertain what corresponds to the pitch, — to ascertain this from the point of view which, as I said, has gradually been adopted in modern time, — adopted most of all, perhaps, in this branch of science. I have already drawn your attention to the fact which can indeed easily be ascertained.

Whenever we perceive a sound or a musical note, there is always some oscillatory phenomenon that underlies it — or, shall we rather say, accompanies, runs parallel to it. The usual experiments can easily be reproduced, to demonstrate this oscillatory character of air or other bodies. Here is a tuning-fork with a point attached, which as it moves can make a mark in the layer of soot, deposited on this glass plate. We need not actually do all these experiments, but if we did strike the tuning-fork to begin with, the picture on the glass plate would reveal that this tuning-fork is executing regular movements. These forms of movement are naturally conveyed to the air and we may therefore say that when we hear any sounding body the air between it and us is in movement. Indeed we bring the air itself directly into movement in the instruments called pipes.

...

One of the main things we now have to discover is what happens when we perceive notes of different pitch.

How do the external phenomena of vibration, which accompany the note, differ with respect to notes of different pitch?

The answer can be shewn by such experiments as we are now about to demonstrate. You see this disc with its rows of holes. We can rotate it rapidly. Herr Stockmeyer will be so kind as to direct a stream of air on to the moving disc. (He did.) You can at once distinguish the different pitch of the two notes. How then did it arise? Nearer the centre of the disc are fewer holes, — 40 in fact. When Herr Stockmeyer blew the stream of air on to here, every time it came upon a hole it went through, then in the intervening space it could not get through, then again it could, and so on. Again and again, by the quick motion of the disc, the next hole came where the last had been, and there arose as many beats as there were holes arriving at the place where the stream of air was going. Thus on the inner circle we got 40 beats, but on the outer we got 80 in the same period of time. The beats bring about the wave, the oscillations or vibrations. Thus in the same period of time we have 80 beats, 80 air-waves in the one case and 40 in the other. The note that arises when we have 80 oscillations is twice as high as the note that arises when we have 40. Sundry experiments of this kind shew how the pitch of the note is connected with the number of vibrations arising in the medium in which the sound is propagated.

Please take together what I have just been saying and what was said once before; it will then lead you to the following reflection. A single oscillation of condensation and attenuation gives, as regards the distance it has gone through, what we call the wave-length. If n such waves arise in a second and the length of each wave is s, the whole wave-movement must be advancing n times s in a second. The path, the distance therefore, through which the whole wave-movement advances in a second, is n times s. Now please recall what I said in an earlier lecture. I said that we must carefully distinguish all that is “phoronomical” on the one hand, and on the other hand all that which we do not merely think out in our own inner life of thought but which consists of outer realities.

In effect, I said, outward realities can never be merely spatial, or arithmetical (able to be numbered and calculated), nor can they be mere displacements. Velocities on the other hand are outward realities, they always are. And of course this remains so when we come to sound or tone. Neither the s nor the n can be experienced as an external reality, for the s is merely spatial while the n is a mere number. What is real is inherent in the velocity. The velocity contains the real being, the real entity which we are here describing as ‘sound’ or ‘tone’.

If I now divide the velocity into two abstractions, in these abstractions I have no realities; I only have what is abstracted, separated out and divided from it. Such are the wave-lengths — the spatial magnitudes — and also the number n.

If on the other hand I want to look at the reality of the sound — at what is real in the world outside myself, — then I must concentrate upon the inner faculty of the sound to have velocity. This then will lead me to a qualitative study of the sound, whereas the way of studying it which we have grown accustomed to in modern physics is merely quantitative.

In the theory of sound, in acoustics especially, we see how modern physics is always prone to insert what can be stated and recorded in these extraneous, quantitative, spatial and temporal, kinematical and arithmetical forms, in place of the qualitative reality which finds expression simply and solely in a certain faculty of speed, or of velocity.

Today however, people no longer even notice how they sail off into materialistic channels even in the theory of sound. It is so evident, they may well argue, that the sound as such is not there outside us; outside us are only the oscillations. Could anything be clearer? — so they may well contend. There are the waves of condensation and attenuation. Then, when my ear is in the act of “hearing”, what is really there outside me are these condensations and attenuations; that unknown something within me (which the physicist of course need not go into, — it is not his department) therefore transforms the waves into subjective experiences, — transforms the vibrations of the vibrating bodies into the quality that is the ‘sound’ or ‘tone’. In all manner of variations you will find ever the same proposition. Outside us are the vibrations; in us are the effects of the vibrations — effects that are merely subjective. In course of time it has become part of their very flesh and bone, till such results emerge as you find quoted from Robert Hamerling for instance in my Riddles of Philosophy. Having absorbed and accepted the teachings of physics, Hamerling says at the very outset: What we experience as the report of a gun, is, in the world outside us, no more nor less than a certain violent disturbance of the air. And from this premise Hamerling continues: Whoever does not believe that the sensory impression he experiences is only there in himself while in the world outside him is simply vibrating air or vibrating ether, — let him put down the book which Hamerling is writing; such books are not for him. Robert Hamerling even goes on to say: Whoever thinks that the picture which he obtains of a horse corresponds to an outward reality, understands nothing at all and had better close the book.

Such things, dear Friends, for once deserve to be followed to their logical conclusion. What would become of it if I treated you, who are now sitting here, according to this way of thinking (I do not say method, but way-of-thinking) which physicists have grown accustomed to apply to the phenomena of sound and light? This surely would be the outcome: You, all of you, now sitting here before me, — I only have you here before me through my own impressions, which (if this way of thought be true) are altogether subjective, since my sensations of light and sound are so. None of you are there outside me in the way I see you. Only the oscillations in the air, between you and me, lead me to the oscillations that are there in you, and I am led to the conclusion that all your inner being and life of soul — which, within you and for yourselves, is surely not to be denied — is not there at all. For me, this inner soul of everyone of you who are here seated is only the effect on my own psyche, while for the rest, all that is really there, seated on these benches, are so many heaps of vibrations. If you deny to light and sound the inner life and being which you experience in a seemingly subjective way, it is precisely as it would be if, having you here before me, I looked on all that is before me as merely part of my subjective life, and thus denied to you the experience of inner life and being.

What I have now been saying is indeed so obvious, so trite, that physicists and physiologists will naturally not presume that they could ever fall into such obvious mistakes. And yet they do. The whole distinction that is usually made of the subjective impression (or whatsoever is alleged to be subjective) from the objective process, amounts to this and nothing else.

It is of course open to the physicist to be quite candid and to say: I, as physicist, am not proposing to investigate the sound or tone at all; I do not enter into what is qualitative. All I am out to investigate are the external, spatial processes (he will not have to call them “objective processes” for that again would beg the question). All I am out to investigate are the outwardly spatial processes, which of course also go on into my own body. These are the subject-matter of my researches. These I abstract from the totality; what is qualitative is no concern of mine. A man who speaks like this is at least candid and straightforward, only he must not then go on to say that the one is “objective” and the other “subjective”, or that the one is the “effect” of the other. What you experience in your soul, — when I experience it with you it is not the effect upon me of the vibrations of your brain. To see through a thing like that is of untold significance; nothing could be of greater importance for the requirements of the new age, not only in science but in the life of humanity at large.

We ought not to be too reluctant to go into deeper questions when dealing with these matters. How easily it can be argued that the uniquely oscillatory character of sound or tone is evident if only from the fact that if I twang a violin-string a second string in the same room, attuned to the same note, will resound too, this being due to the fact that the intervening medium propagates the accompanying oscillations. Yet we do not understand what is happening in such a case unless we bring it into connection with a more widespread phenomenon. I mean the following for instance, — it has in fact been observed.

1920-04-21-GA301

also on Human breath

To clarify this, we can look at some part of life, say, music. The musical part of life is the best evidence (but only one among many we will encounter) of the particular relationship of feeling to the rhythmic life of the organism. The imaginative, thinking life connected with the nerve-sense organism perceives the rhythmic life connected with feeling. When we hear something musical, when we give ourselves over to a picture presented in tones, we quite obviously perceive through our senses. Those physiologists, however, who can observe in more subtle ways, notice that our breathing inwardly participates in the musical picture; how much our breathing has to do with what we experience; and how that musical picture appears as something to be aesthetically judged, something placed in the realm of art.

We need to be clear about the complicated process continuously going on within us. Let us look at our own organism.

The nerve-sense organism is centralized in the human brain in such a way that the brain is in a firm state only to a small extent. The whole brain swims in cerebrospinal fluid. We can clearly understand what occurs by noticing that if our brain did not swim in cerebrospinal fluid, it would rest upon the blood vessels at the base of our skull and continuously exert pressure upon them. Because our brain does swim in cerebrospinal fluid, it is subject to continuous upward pressure — we know this from Archimedes’ principle — so that of the 1300–1500-gram weight of the brain, only about 20 grams press upon the base of the skull. The brain is subject to a significant pressure from below, so that it presses only a little upon the base of the skull.

This cerebrospinal fluid participates in the entirety of our human experience no less than the firm part of the brain.

The cerebrospinal fluid continually moves up and down. The fluid moves up and down rhythmically from the brain through the spinal column. Then it radiates out into the abdominal cavity, where inhalation forces it back into the cerebral cavity, from whence it flows back out with exhaling. Our cerebrospinal fluid moves up and down in a continuous process that extends throughout the remainder of the organism; a continuous vibrating movement essentially fills the whole human being and is connected with breathing.

[experience of music]

When we hear a series of tones, we encounter them as breathing human beings. The cerebrospinal fluid is continuously moving up and down.

When we listen to music, the inner rhythm of the liquid moving up and down encounters what occurs within our hearing organs as a result of the tones.

Thus there is a continuous clash of the inner vibrating music of our breathing with what happens in the ear when listening to music.

Our experience of music exists in the balance between our hearing and our rhythmic breathing.

Someone who tries to connect our nerve processes directly with what occurs in our musical perception, which is filled with feeling, is on the wrong path. The nerve processes exist in musical perception only to connect it with what takes place deeper in our I, so that we can actually perceive the music and transform it into imagination.

1922-12-02-GA283

1923-03-07-GA283

1923-03-08-GA283

1923-03-16-GA283

1923-05-20-GA276

1923-05-23

1924-08-22-GA243

synopsis

The revelation of the Divine through Art. Art preserves a dim memory of the spiritual world. The plastic Arts are now assuming more and more a musical form. The Art of the near future will be music. The coming of the living Christ will have to be portrayed through music. In Parsifal the “wooing” of the Christ Impulse into the phenomenal world was expressed through symbols only (e.g. the Dove and the Communion). Wagner failed to portray the essence of the Christ Impulse in the Cosmos and the Earth. Music is able to portray the Christ Impulse in tones that are inwardly permeated with soul and spirit. If music is inspired by Spiritual Science it will find means to achieve this. The Mystery of the Incarnation of Christ can be evoked in music. Bruckner was unable to achieve this because of his limitations.

quote A

[Wagner failed – Christ Impulse in music <-> major third & fifth]

The urge to give a musical expression of the Christ Impulse already existed. It was anticipated in Richard Wagner and was ultimately responsible for the creation of Parsifal. But in Parsifal the introduction of the Christ Impulse into the phenomenal world where it seeks to give expression to the purest Christian spirit, has been given a mere symbolic indication, such as the appearance of the Dove and so on. The Communion has also been portrayed symbolically. The music of Parsifal fails to portray the real significance of the Christ Impulse in the Cosmos and the Earth.

[Christ Impulse in Music]

Music is able to portray this Christ Impulse musically, in tones that are inwardly permeated with spirit. If music allows itself to be inspired by spiritual science, it will find ways of expressing the Christ Impulse, for it will reveal purely artistically and intuitively how the Christ Impulse in the cosmos and the Earth can be awakened symphonically in tones.

To this end we only need to be able to deepen our experience of the sphere of the major third by an inner enrichment of musical experience that penetrates into the hidden depths of feeling.

  • If we experience the sphere of the major third as something wholly enclosed within the inner being of man
  • and if we then feel the sphere of the major fifth to have the characteristic of “enveloping,” so that, as we grow into the configuration of the fifth, we reach the boundary of the human and the cosmic, where the cosmic resounds into the sphere of the human and the human, consumed with longing, yearns to rush forth into the Cosmos,
  • then, in the mystery enacted between the spheres of the major third and major fifth, we can experience musically something of the inner being of man that reaches out into the Cosmos.

And

  • if we then succeed in setting free the dissonances of the seventh to echo cosmic life, where the dissonances express man's sentient experiences in the Cosmos as he journeys towards the various spiritual realms;
  • and if we succeed in allowing the dissonances of the seventh to die away, so that through their dying fall they acquire a certain definition, then in their dying strains they are ultimately resolved in something which, to the musical ear, resembles a musical firmament.

...

  • If, then, having already given a subtle indication of the experience of the ‘minor’ with the ‘major,’
  • if, in the dying strains of the dissonances of the seventh, in this spontaneous re-creation of the dissonances into a totality,
    • we find here a means of passing in an intensely minor mood
      • from the dissonances of the seventh, from the near consonance of these diminishing dissonances
      • to the sphere of the fifth in a minor mood,
    • and from that point blend the sphere of the fifth with that of the minor third,
  • then we shall have evoked in this way the musical experience of the Incarnation, and what is more, of the Incarnation of the Christ.

In feeling our way outwards into the sphere of the seventh, which to cosmic feeling is only apparently dissonant and that we fashion into a ‘firmament,’ in that it is seemingly supported by the octave, if we have grasped this with our feelings and retrace our steps in the manner already indicated and find how, in the embryonic form of the consonances of the minor third, there is a possibility of giving a musical representation of the Incarnation, then, when we retrace our steps to the major third in this sphere, the “Hallelujah” of the Christ can ring out from this musical configuration as pure music.

Then, within the configuration of the tones man will be able to conjure forth an immediate realization of the super-sensible and express it musically.

The Christ Impulse can be found in music.

[Bruckner also failed]

And the dissolution of the symphonic into near dissonance, as in Beethoven, can be redeemed by a return to the dominion of the cosmic in music. Bruckner attempted this within the narrow limits of a traditional framework. But his posthumous symphony shows that he could not escape these limitations. On one hand we admire its greatness, but on the other hand we find a hesitant approach to the true elements of music, and a failure to achieve a full realization of these elements which can only be experienced in the way I have described, i.e. when we have made strides in the realm of pure music and discover therein the essence, the fundamental spirit which can conjure forth a world through tones.

Without doubt the musical development I have described will one day be achieved through anthroposophical inspiration if mankind does not sink into decadence; and ultimately — and this will depend entirely upon mankind — the true nature of the Christ Impulse will be revealed externally.

I wish to draw your attention to this because you will then realize that Anthroposophy seeks to permeate all aspects of life. This can be accomplished if man, for his part, finds the true path to anthroposophical experience and investigation. It will even come to pass that one day the realm of music shall echo the teachings of Anthroposophy and the Christian enigma shall be solved through music.

1925-GA028

Frequent music festivals brought the representative artists of the time and their works to Weimar. One saw there, for example, Mahler as director at a music festival when he was just getting his start. Ineradicable was the impression of the way in which he used the baton – not aiding music in the flood of forms, but as the experience of a supersensible hidden something visibly pointing amid the forms.

Discussion

Note 1 - A selection of music

Introduction

This section is a placeholder as a tentative attempt to gather some pointers to music that could be argued to be suitable and appropriate as part of a curriculum of spiritual science as a journey for the soul, not just for the intellect. It therefore complements written information and visual illustrations on this site.

Each piece of music below ranks in the gallery we can call 'eternal music' that had so much importance for humanity, because it provided meaning and inspiration to generators of souls through the centuries.

Listing

The below is a preliminary initialization of this new section. For exploring, start for example with the piece by Tallis and Wagner's Parsifal and/or Lohengrin ouvertures.

Note: to be able to reference the music samples (MS) and the information and commentary about them, we'll use a simple FMC reference number as a pointer for each Music Sample (MS)

FMC-MS0001
  • Thomas Tallis (1505-1585)
    • Spem in alium (1570)
      • versions:
      • commentary:
        • Tallis is remembered as a composer of sacred vocal music, and mostly with his Spem in alium is a unique motet written for eight choirs of five-voice.
        • this music is unique in its kind, if one were to choose music to express the Cosmos fractal and the dynamic interplay of the spiritual hierarchies. It is like an organic ocean-of-voices. A homogeneous flow of water is created as blending of the various voices of the choirs combined .. the flow is sometimes more integrated, sometimes certain voices come to expression more, but although the voices and their changing tones and nuances are individually different they blend into group effects and are still all very much together and sound as one creation.
Others still without reference

Links on the site

Related pages

References and further reading

Some well-known individuals who have written about music from an anthroposophical perspective are a.o. Heiner Ruland, Hermann Pfrogner, Friedrich Oberkogler, Michael Kurtz

  • Antoine Fabre d'Olivet (1767-1825): 'Music Explained as Science and as Art and Considered in its Analog Relationship with Religious Mysteries, Ancient Mythology and the History of the Earth',
  • Hermann Beckh
    • Das geistige Wesen der Tonarten. Versuch einer neuen Betrachtung musikalischer Probleme im Lichte der Geisteswissenschaft (The Spiritual Character of Musical Keys: an attempt at a new view of musical problems in the context of the humanities) (1923)
    • Die Sprache der Tonart in der Musik von Bach bis Bruckner, mit besonderer Berücksichtigung des Wagnerschen Musikdramas (The Language of the Art of Keys in Music from Bach to Bruckner, with special consideration of Wagnerian musical drama) (1937)
    • The Essence of Tonality: An attempt to view musical subjects in the light of spiritual science
    • The language of tonality in the music of Bach to Bruckner
    • The Mystery of Musical Creativity: The Human Being and Music (2020)
  • Hans Erhard Lauer: 'Die Entwicklung der Musik im Wandel der Tonsysteme' (1935,1977)
  • Hans-Georg Burghardt (1909-1993)
    • 'Das Dur-Moll-Problem' (essay 1946)
    • see also:
      • Hartmut Haupt: 'The systems of seconds of Hans-Georg Burghardt'
      • Nicola Kämpken: Hans Georg Burghardt, Leben und Werk, ein Sonderweg in der modernen Musik (2000)
  • Sigismund von Gleich: 'Über die Wirkung der Tonarten in der Musik' (in EN as 'About the Effect of Tonalities in Music', in NL as 'De toonsoorten : Hun gevoelswaarden en kosmische achtergronden volgens goetheanistische en geesteswetenschappelijke inzichten geschetst' (1984)
  • Heiner Ruland:
    • 'Die Neugeburt der Musik aus dem Wesen des Menschen. Künstlerische und therapeutische Aufgaben einer erneuerten Musikkultur' (1987)
    • Expanding Tonal Awareness: A Musical Exploration of the Evolution of Consciousness Guided by the Monochord (1992)
  • Hermann Pfrogner
    • Die Zwölfordnung der Töne (1953)
    • Musik. Geschichte ihrer Deutung (1954)
    • Lebendige Tonwelt. Zum Phänomen Musik (1987, 2010)
    • Die sieben Lebensprozesse. Eine musiktherapeutische Anregung (1978)
    • Die drei Lebensaspekte in der Musik (1989)
  • Ernst Hagemann: 'Vom Wesen des Musikalischen' (1974)
  • Juanita Wescott: Magic and music - The language of the Gods revealed (1982)
  • Friedrich Oberkogler (1918-2000)
    • Tierkreis und Planetenkräfte in der Musik, Schaffhausen 1988)
    • books about various composers (Brucker, Wagner, Beethoven, Bach, Schubert)
  • Dr. Armin J. Husemann
    • The harmony of the human body: musical principles in human physiology (1994)
    • Human hearing and the reality of music (2013)
  • Graham H. Jackson: 'The Spiritual Basis of Musical Harmony' (2006)
  • Wilhelm Dörfler (1899-1980): 'Das Lebensgefüge der Musik. Eine Gesamterkenntnis ihrer Wirkungskräfte'
  • Norbert Visser:
    • Das Tongeheimnis der materie : über Form und Materialität beim Musikinstrumentenbau : der Choroi-Impuls (1984)
    • Het mysterie van de toon in mens, ruimte en materie (1997)
  • Maria Renold (1917-2003): 'Intervals, Scales, Tones And the Concert Pitch c = 128 Hz' (2015)
  • Michael Kurtz
    • Rudolf Steiner und die Musik (2015)
    • Musik der Mitte - Das Ringen um eine Erweiterung des Tonsystems im Briefwechsel zwischen Heiner Ruland und Hermann Pfrogner (2021)
  • Reinhild Brass, Stefan Hasler: “Das Tonerlebnis im Menschen” von Rudolf Steiner (2019)
    • compilation of commentaries on Steiner's lectures of 2023
  • Danaë Killian-O’Callaghan: 'Unveiling the melodic interval. A phenomenology of the musical element in human consciousness'
  • John Stuart Reid: 'The Curious Concert Pitch Conflict'
  • Joscelyn Godwin: 'Musical Alchemy: the Work of Composer and Listener'
  • Joscelyn Godwin (editor): 'Cosmic Music: Musical Keys to the Interpretation of Reality' (1989)
    • essays by Marius Schneider, Rudolf Haase, and Hans Erhard Lauer

Music and the formative forces

  • Michael Theroux: 'Rhythmic formative forces of music' (1995) - freely downloadeable in PDF

Music therapy

  • Bernard Lievegoed: 'Beat, Rhythm and Melody: The Therapeutic Use of Musical Elements' (2014 in EN, medical doctorate in NL 1939)
  • Karl König: 'Music Therapy - Research and Insights' (2024)
  • Hermann Pfrogner: 'Die sieben Lebensprozesse. Eine musiktherapeutische Anregung' (1978)
  • Hilda Deighton and Gina Palermo (editors): 'Singing and the etheric tone: Gracia Ricardo's approach to singing based on her work with Rudolf Steiner' (1991)
  • Dr Hans Heinrich Engel: 'Musical Anthropology: Ideas for the Study of an anthroposophical Music Therapy' (2014)
    • series of lectures given in the late sixties and early seventies. The lectures were part of a research into Music therapy based on Rudolf Steiner's anthroposophy and were given in the context of the work with children with complex needs and learning disabilities in a number of residential communities in Northern Ireland, Switzerland and the Netherlands. Engel's approach to therapy was unique and intuitive, but at the same time based on his knowledge of and experience with anthroposophical medicine. The lectures give a fascinating description of the human organs and of the life processes, especially breathing. This book may stimulate those who wish to work therapeutically with the medium of music and are at the same time interested in the spiritual background of the human being as a basis for a deeper understanding of the effect of the elements of music
  • for an introduction see also:

Werbeck singing

  • Valborg Werbeck-Svardstrom:
    • 'Uncovering the Voice The Cleansing Power of Song' (1938, 1980, republished 2008)
    • in NL: 'Zin in zingen; een loutering in de zangkunst'
  • Sabine Wahlers: 'Exercises from the School of Uncovering the Voice: by Valborg Werbeck-Svärdström' (2019)
  • see also oa: orpheus.hr/en/ or www.werbecksinging.org/
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