60. Music, Beauty, and the Spiritual Senses

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Lecture Notes

Main Topics #

The Hierarchy of Senses #

• Sight and hearing are more ‘spiritual’ senses; touch, taste, and smell are more material
• Smell is positioned in between
• This hierarchy is connected to the fine arts: sight relates to sculpture and painting; hearing relates to music and fiction

Hegel’s Ordering of the Fine Arts #

• Fiction (epics, drama) ranks highest
• Music ranks above painting
• Painting ranks above sculpture
• Sculpture ranks above architecture
• This ordering reflects a progression toward greater spirituality and abstraction
• Some colleagues argue painting is higher than music, but Berquist finds this position untenable

Why Sight is ‘Spiritual’: The Eye as Metaphor for Reason and Imagination #

• The word ’eye’ extends metaphorically from sensory sight to imagination (‘mind’s eye’) and to reason itself
• Example from Hamlet: Horatio says he would not believe without ’the sensible voucher of my own eyes’; Hamlet refers to picturing his father ‘in my mind’s eye’
• Gregory the Great (Moralia) speaks of anger disturbing ’the eye of the soul,’ meaning reason/judgment
• The eye is more like imagination and understanding than other senses
• Aristotle uses ’light’ metaphorically when discussing understanding

Music and Nature #

• Nature provides beautiful sights (sunsets, mountains, fall foliage) that rival human paintings
• However, human music (Mozart, Handel, Corelli) produces more beautiful sounds than found in nature
• This reveals something important: music is closer to thinking because it is discursive—one thing leads to another, like thought itself
• Words and music are closer to thought than things are; both signify something beyond themselves

The Power of Music on Human Behavior and Virtue #

• Music is extremely powerful in shaping souls and dispositions toward virtue or vice
• Bad music disposes souls toward vice and evil; good music disposes souls toward virtue
• Music acts on the emotions automatically, partly bypassing rational deliberation
• If music represents disordered emotions, listeners are disposed toward vice; if it represents virtuous emotions (emotions partaking of reason), listeners are disposed toward virtue
• Mozart’s music exemplifies music that represents emotions partaking of reason
• Music is ‘connatural’ to humans, making it hard to change poor musical taste once established

Historical Examples of Music’s Power #

• When rock and roll first appeared, performances were accompanied by riots
• Nazi military music demonstrates music’s capacity to stir dangerous emotional states
• Revolutionary War recruitment: young people would enlist after hearing patriotic music
• The Sirens in Homer’s Odyssey: music so powerful that even Odysseus, forewarned by reason, required physical restraint to resist
• Bad lyrics combined with compelling rhythms dispose listeners toward vice (example: ‘I’m going to make a monkey out of you’)

Aristotle on Music in Education #

• Aristotle discusses the importance of music in education in the Politics, Book VIII
• Music’s effect on people is more powerful than painting
• The kind of music young people listen to is extremely important to their moral development

Poetry vs. Psalms: A Critical Distinction #

• Poetry (specifically: a Shakespearean sonnet) is properly defined as “a likeness of thought and feeling”
  • It appeals to emotions and imagination
  • It aims to please through mimesis of human experience
  • It has 14 lines in iambic pentameter, divided into three quatrains with alternate rhyming and a rhyming couplet
• Psalms are prayers, not poems
  • They may be put into meter, rhythm, and rhyme for mnemonic purposes (like ‘Thirty days hath September’)
  • But it is accidental to psalms that they be versified; it is essential to poems
  • The psalms proceed according to what Thomas calls modus laudis et orationis—a prayerful and praising mode
• The Adoro Te Devote is a prayer in verse, not a poem
• The original Our Father may have had meter and rhythm in Aramaic, but this does not make it a poem
• Empedocles wrote philosophy in verse, but this does not make his work a poem

The Two Modes of Proceeding in Psalms: Prayer and Praise #

• Thomas distinguishes between:
  • Prayer in the narrow sense (oratio): asking God for something
  • Praise (laus): celebrating God’s attributes and giving thanks
• The psalms characteristically proceed in both modes
• Augustine divides the 150 psalms into three fifties:
  • First 50: Repentance and fighting against sin (the beginning stage of spiritual life)
  • Second 50: Progressing in virtue through good deeds (the proficient stage)
  • Third 50: Resting in God (the unitive stage)
• This parallels the three stages of charity and the spiritual life

The Hail Mary and Its Correspondence to the Psalms #

• The first part (‘Hail Mary, full of grace…blessed art thou amongst women…’) is laudativus (praise)
  • Drawn from the Annunciation and Visitation narratives
  • Praises Mary, not asking for anything
• The second part (‘Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us…’) is orativus (prayer in the narrow sense)
  • Asks Mary to pray for us
  • Added by the Church
• The 150 Hail Marys of the rosary correspond to the 150 Psalms not merely numerically but structurally: both involve praise and petition
• The decades of the rosary often pair petitions with thanksgivings, mirroring the pattern of the psalms

Music and Praise as Intrinsically Connected #

• Music is appropriate to honor and praise because honor characteristically employs music (national anthems, military marches, ceremonial music)
• In heaven, there will be no eating or drinking (these are metaphorical), but there will be vocal praise
• St. Teresa of Avila appeared to a sister after death and said they are not really different: the sister praises God without seeing Him; Teresa praises God now seeing Him
• Songs of praise in this life are close to what heaven will be like

The Progression from Self to God in Prayer #

• When asking God for something, we think of what we need (focused on self)
• When thanking God, we think of what we’ve received, moving away from self-focus
• When praising God, we think only of God Himself—‘holy, holy, holy’—with no reference back to self
• Psalm 99 (old numbering) illustrates this progression: ‘Know that the Lord is God…enter His gates with thanksgiving…His courts with praise’

Key Arguments #

Why Sight and Hearing are More Spiritual #

• Argument: These senses have less need for physical contact and less dependence on material alteration
• Both can operate at a distance
• Both naturally connect to intellectual operations through metaphor (eye of the mind, inner hearing)
• The extension of ’eye’ and ‘see’ to imagination and reason demonstrates their closeness to spirit

Why Music is Superior to Painting in the Fine Arts #

• Argument: Music is discursive, like thinking; it unfolds over time with one element leading to another
• Painting is static; music is dynamic
• Music more closely mirrors the rational process
• Therefore, music stands closer to reason than painting does

Why Music is Powerful in Forming Virtue and Vice #

• Argument: Music moves emotions automatically, partly bypassing deliberate rational analysis
• When music represents virtuous emotions (emotions partaking of reason), it disposes listeners toward virtue
• When music represents disordered emotions, it disposes listeners toward vice
• This automatic effect makes music more powerful than rational argument in moral formation
• The Sirens example: even forewarned reason cannot guarantee resistance without physical prevention

Why Psalms Should Not Be Called Poems #

• Argument: Poems are defined by their essential aim—to create a likeness of thought and feeling for aesthetic pleasure
• Versifying is accidental to psalms; their essential nature is to be prayers and praises
• A mnemonic device in meter (e.g., ‘Thirty days hath September’) is not a poem
• Philosophy in verse (Empedocles) is not a poem
• Therefore, psalms—even when metered—should be called prayers, not poems

Why Human Music Exceeds Nature’s Sounds #

• Argument: This fact reveals music’s nature: music is signifying, like words
• Words signify thoughts; music signifies emotions partaking of reason
• Both word and music stand closer to reason and thought than do natural things themselves
• Nature excels in visual beauty but not in auditory beauty because auditory beauty is achieved through the discursive, rational organization of sound—which is distinctly human

Important Definitions #

Fine Arts (artes liberales) #

• According to Hegel’s framework: fiction, music, painting, sculpture, architecture, ordered from most to least spiritual

Spiritual Senses #

• Those senses that operate at a distance and connect naturally to imagination and reason (sight and hearing)
• Contrasted with material senses (touch, taste, smell)

Discursive #

• Proceeding by successive steps, one thing leading to another (like reasoning)
• Music is discursive because it unfolds temporally with each note or phrase leading to the next

Modus laudis et orationis #

• The characteristic mode of proceeding of the psalms: proceeding in a prayerful and praising way
• Distinguishes prayer (petition) from praise (celebration)

Poetry (Shakespearean Sonnet) #

• A likeness of thought and feeling in fourteen lines of iambic pentameter, divided into three quatrains with alternate rhyming and concluded by a rhyming couplet
• Essentially aims to please through mimesis of human experience

Prayer (oratio) #

• In the strict sense: asking God for something
• Distinguished from praise (laus), which celebrates and thanks without petition

Praise (laus) #

• Celebration of God’s attributes and thanksgiving
• Does not petition but rather contemplates the beloved (God) or honored person (Mary)

Laudativus and Orativus #

• Modes of discourse: laudativus (praising mode), orativus (petitional mode)

Examples & Illustrations #

Hamlet’s Mind’s Eye #

• Before seeing his father’s ghost, Hamlet says he can picture his father ‘in my mind’s eye’
• This demonstrates the metaphorical extension of ’eye’ from sensory sight to imagination

Horatio’s Testimony #

• Horatio refuses to believe the ghost appeared until he sees it himself with his own eyes
• He says he would not have believed without ’the sensible voucher of my own eyes’
• Later, when he sees it, he moves toward reason, recognizing there must be a cause

Gregory the Great on the Eye of the Soul #

• Gregory states that anger disturbs ’the eye of the soul’
• This means anger disturbs judgment and reason
• The metaphor shows that reason is metaphorically ‘sight’

Shakespeare’s Sonnet on the Mistress’s Voice #

• ‘I love to hear my mistress’s voice, although I know that music has a far more pleasant sound’
• Berquist uses this to illustrate accidental vs. essential causes of joy
• We enjoy the voice not for its acoustic beauty but because it belongs to someone we love
• Recognition of a friend’s voice brings joy not from the sound itself but from the beloved person

The Phone Recognition Example #

• When you recognize a friend’s voice on the phone, you have joy
• This joy is not because the voice is like Pavarotti’s (necessarily beautiful), but because you recognize your friend
• You rejoice in the person, not in the sound as such

The Sirens in Homer’s Odyssey #

• The sirens seduce sailors with beautiful music
• Odysseus is forewarned and has his crew plug their ears
• But Odysseus, curious, has himself tied to the mast with orders to tie him tighter if he asks to be released
• Even great Odysseus, with reason forewarned, is in danger of seduction
• The crew members with plugged ears are protected, showing music’s power to overcome even reasoned precaution

Melody Associated with Memory #

• We sometimes hear a melody and associate it with a person or place we enjoyed
• This association is accidental (not essential to the melody itself)
• But it shows music’s power to evoke memory and emotion

Rock and Roll Riots #

• When rock and roll first emerged, performances were accompanied by riots
• Sailors at naval events threw chairs and became wildly violent
• This demonstrates music’s power to move people toward disordered emotional states

Nazi Military Music #

• Nazi music demonstrates music’s capacity to stir dangerous emotional and ideological fervor
• Wagner was prohibited in Israel due to associations with Nazism
• This shows the long-term effects of musical conditioning on entire populations

Revolutionary War Recruitment #

• Young people would be moved by patriotic music and suddenly find themselves in the army
• The music disposed them toward military enthusiasm without rational deliberation

High School Dance Song Lyrics #

• A song with the lyrics ‘I’m going to make a monkey out of you, just you wait and see’
• The music and lyrics together disposed listeners toward perverse, bestial behavior
• The lyrics explicitly state what the music is doing

Augustine’s Division of the 150 Psalms #

• The first 50 psalms emphasize repentance (fighting sin)
• The second 50 psalms emphasize progress in virtue (good deeds)
• The third 50 psalms emphasize resting in God and praise
• This parallels the three stages of spiritual life and the development of charity

St. Teresa of Avila’s Vision #

• Teresa appeared to a sister after her death and said: ‘We’re not really too different. You’re praising God not seeing Him, and I’m praising God now seeing Him’
• This illustrates that earthly praise of God approaches the beatific vision

Psalm 99 (Old Numbering): ‘Sing Joyfully to the Lord’ #

• ‘Sing joyfully to the Lord, all you lands. Serve the Lord with gladness…Know that the Lord is God, He made us, He is, we are’
• This psalm’s structure mirrors the Summa Theologiae: God in Himself, God the maker, God the end
• ‘Enter His gates with thanksgiving, His courts with praise’ shows progression from petition (thanksgiving) to pure praise
• When we ask God for things, we’re thinking of our needs; when we praise, we think only of God Himself

National Anthem and Presidential Honors #

• We honor the nation with the national anthem
• We honor the president with ‘Hail to the Chief’
• We honor soldiers with military music
• This shows music is intrinsically suited to giving honor and praise

Notable Quotes #

“The sense of sight is better than the sense of hearing, the fact that we’d rather be deaf than blind.” - Berquist, citing Aristotle on the preeminence of sight for knowing

“The eye is more like the imagination and more like the reason.” - Berquist, explaining why sight is more spiritual

“Music is a very powerful thing. A very powerful thing.” - Berquist, emphasizing music’s capacity to form character

“Music is most of all in the music of Mozart, that he represents the emotions partaking of reason.” - Berquist, on why Mozart exemplifies good music

“It’s very hard to change [bad musical taste], because music is so natural thing, so connatural to us.” - Berquist, on the difficulty of moral formation through music

“[Poetry is] a likeness of thought and feeling.” - Berquist’s definition of poetry

“[Psalms] are really, what, prayers, right? You’ve got to be careful…You can put a prayer into meter if you want to.” - Berquist, on why psalms should not be called poems

“When you ask God for things, you’re thinking kind of of what you need…When you thank God, you’re starting to move away from yourself…But when you praise him, you’re not even looking back at yourself at all.” - Berquist, on the progression from petition to praise

“In some sense, words are closer to thoughts than what? Than things.” - Berquist, on why music (like words) is closer to reason than natural things

Questions Addressed #

Why are sight and hearing more ‘spiritual’ than other senses? #

• Answer: Because they operate at a distance and naturally connect to imagination and reason. The metaphorical extension of ’eye’ to imagination and reason (‘mind’s eye,’ ’eye of the soul’) shows their spiritual kinship.

Why does Hegel rank music above painting? #

• Answer: Because music is discursive like thinking—one note leads to another—whereas painting is static. Music therefore stands closer to reason, and the fine arts are ordered by their proximity to spirit/reason.

How does nature’s greater visual beauty but lesser auditory beauty illustrate something about music? #

• Answer: It shows that music is signifying, like words. Human music organizes sound discursively to create beauty, whereas natural sounds lack this rational organization. Music’s discursive character makes it closer to thought than sensory perception alone.

Why is music so powerful in forming virtue and vice? #

• Answer: Music moves emotions automatically, representing either virtuous emotions (partaking of reason) or disordered emotions. Listeners’ emotions are moved in sympathy with the music, disposing them toward either virtue or vice without requiring deliberate rational assent.

Why can’t bad musical taste be easily changed? #

• Answer: Because music is connatural to humans and acts at a level partly bypassing rational deliberation. Early habituation to good music is necessary; changing established taste requires both understanding and long exposure to better music.

Should psalms be called poems? #

• Answer: No. Psalms are essentially prayers and praises, even when versified. Poetry is essentially a likeness of thought and feeling aimed at aesthetic pleasure. Versifying is accidental to psalms but essential to poems. To call psalms poems confuses their nature.

What distinguishes prayer from praise in the psalms? #

• Answer: Prayer (oratio) asks God for something, focusing on our needs. Praise (laus) celebrates God Himself or His attributes without petition. Augustine’s division of the 150 psalms reflects progression from petition (first 50) to progress in virtue (second 50) to rest in God (third 50).

How do the two parts of the Hail Mary correspond to the psalms? #

• Answer: The first part is laudativus (praise: ‘Hail Mary, full of grace…’), drawn from Scripture’s praise of Mary. The second part is orativus (petition: ‘Pray for us…’). This mirrors the modus laudis et orationis of the psalms, making 150 Hail Marys a fitting correspondence to 150 Psalms.

What happens to eating and drinking in heaven? #

• Answer: Jesus’s words about eating and drinking at the Father’s table refer metaphorically to the beatific vision. Food is the object of the vegetative soul; we speak metaphorically of food for thought. In heaven, we will see God as He is, enjoying His nature as He enjoys Himself—not eating literal food, but in perfect contemplation and love.

Why is music appropriate to praise and honor? #

• Answer: Whenever we honor someone or something, we characteristically use music—national anthems, military marches, ceremonial music. Music’s capacity to move emotions and represent virtuous feeling makes it intrinsically suited to giving honor. This will continue in heaven, where vocal praise will be prominent.

Connections to Other Philosophical Concepts #

Aristotle’s Hierarchy of the Soul #

• Berquist’s discussion assumes the Aristotelian distinction between vegetative, sensitive, and rational souls
• Music works primarily on the sensitive soul but should be ordered by reason (the rational soul)
• Bad music represents the sensitive soul disordered; good music represents the sensitive soul ordered by reason

Aquinas’s Doctrine of Metaphor #

• The extension of ’eye’ to imagination and reason illustrates how metaphor reveals deep truths about reality
• Metaphors are not merely decorative but reflect the real hierarchy of being and knowledge

The Beatific Vision #

• References to heaven and eternal praise assume Thomas’s doctrine of the beatific vision
• Earthly praise approaches this vision; music in heaven will express perfect knowledge and love of God

Virtue and Vice #

• Music’s power to dispose toward virtue or vice connects to Thomas’s account of how habits are formed
• Repeated exposure to music shapes the appetitive powers, disposing us toward good or evil acts

Signification and Meaning #

• The discussion of music as signifying (like words) connects to broader medieval philosophy of language and meaning
• Music, words, and things are ordered by their proximity to thought and reason