The universe – the divine music Cover Image

Wszechświat – Boska muzyka
The universe – the divine music

Author(s): Tomasz Maziarka
Subject(s): Christian Theology and Religion, Music, Ancient World, Middle Ages, Modern Age, Philosophy of Religion, Philosophy of Science, Sociology of Religion
Published by: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Papieskiego Jana Pawła II w Krakowie
Keywords: philosophy of music; mathematicity of the music; cosmic fugue; God as the Great Musician;

Summary/Abstract: The nature of music and the nature of the universe reveals a lot of common features. Similarity of both was perceived in mythical era; the world of music and the world of astronomy was devoted under patronage of the sisters – the divine Muses. The discovery of the mathematical nature of the musical intervals, which was made by Pythagoras ordered him to base the harmony of the universe on the numerical relations and to recognize that music accompanies the revolution of the heavenly spheres. Plato gave the „music of the spheres” geometric form, and in the Middle Ages, when the Christianity assimilated the idea of the world as a rational structure, harmonia mundi was a model for the composers as well as for ascetic struggles. Modern times and characteristic development of natural sciences, very clearly supported the argument that the world is mathematical. Metaphorical approach of the modern String Theory, which describes the evolution of the first moments of the universe, permits to assign to God the role of the Great Musician who „playing on the strings” – creates the universe.

  • Issue Year: 33/2014
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 167-182
  • Page Count: 16
  • Language: Polish