Mathematics and harmony

 

In Wednesday’s post I said I was surprised to find that I hadn’t shared Dryden’s “Song for St. Cecilia’s Day” before. I’ve just come across a post I started writing early last summer and never posted, and I mentioned the poem there. It’s only a fragment, and I don’t remember where I’d planned to go with the post, but I’m going to share it anyway.

 

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My friend Esther and I have been reading the classic Introduction to Arithmetic by Nicomachus of Gerasa, who lived about a century after Christ. In the last chapter of the book he discusses the relationship between numbers which he calls, following Pythagoras, Plato, and Aristotle, the harmonic proportion.

Harmony is a three dimensional number and “is most useful for all progress in music and in the theory of the nature of the universe.”

The ancient philosophers, and the medievals after them, believed that the motion of the cosmos was musical in nature.

In his discussion, he uses the word “diapason,” which I learned from John Dryden’s poem, “A Song for St. Cecilia’s Day, 1687.” Here is the first stanza:

From harmony, from Heav’nly harmony

               This universal frame began.

       When Nature underneath a heap

               Of jarring atoms lay,

       And could not heave her head,

The tuneful voice was heard from high,

               Arise ye more than dead.

Then cold, and hot, and moist, and dry,

       In order to their stations leap,

               And music’s pow’r obey.

From harmony, from Heav’nly harmony

               This universal frame began:

               From harmony to harmony

Through all the compass of the notes it ran,

       The diapason closing full in man.

 

In C.S. Lewis’s creation myth in The Magician’s Nephew, Aslan sings Narnia into existence. J.R.R. Tolkien’s creation myth in The Silmarillion is part of this tradition, too: Eru Iluvatar’s creates the Ainur from his own thoughts, and their songs after Iluvitar’s pattern bring everything else into existence.

Lewis’s version, being written for children, is the simpler, more straightforward one—everything in Narnia is made by Aslan. But Tolkien’s is an image not only of God the creator, but of Man, made in his image, acting as sub-creator, following the pattern of order, harmony, beauty.

From Harmony this universal frame began*

Boethius playing the monochord
Anonymous,
Cambridge, University Library
Public Domain
Link

“Pythagoras and his followers devoted a great deal of attention to acoustical and musical phenomena. They regarded consonances—especially of a fourth, fifth, and octave—as models of that harmony, conceived of as an accord or equilibrium of different elements, which they equated with the human soul or with the ordering principle of the universe. The assignment of the numerical ratios that are at the basis of musical concordances was for the Pythagoreans the starting point for discovering the laws which governed both the feelings of the soul and the movements of the universe. They arrived at these results experimentally, through the monochord, whose invention was attributed to Pythagoras himself.”

 ~Music in Greek and Roman Culture, by Giovanni Comotti (tr. Rosaria V. Munson)

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*I just realized I’ve never shared John Dryden’s “Song for St. Cecilia’s Day” here, which is a horrible oversight. Do read it—it’s so beautiful and fairly sums up the medieval understanding of how the order of the entire cosmos is a musical relationship.

The Ballad of the White Horse

For many years in our home school I read G.K. Chesterton's poem "The Ballad of the White Horse" to my kids during the month of October. This is the story of Alfred the Great's struggle against the pagan invaders in the late 800s. I chose this month for our annual reading because Alfred's feast day is the 26th of October.

After all my kids graduated, I missed the annual read-aloud, so a couple of years ago I hosted a series of Zoom calls and read the poem aloud to whoever showed up. Before each reading I gave a little bit of historical or literary context to aid the understanding of my listeners.

Each book takes around fifteen minutes to read aloud, so it's perfect for Morning Time. I usually started reading early in the month and read two or three books a week so we'd finish ahead of the feast day, but some years we didn't manage to start till later in the month. It's all good -- just DO read (or listen to) this wonderful tale!

Here's the whole playlist.

Check out my "Alfred the Great" tag for more posts on the history of Alfred, excerpts from the poem, suggestions for keeping the Church's liturgical calendar, and ideas for related things to add to your Morning Time.

Ascension Day and a happy providence

 During our Morning Prayers today one of the Psalms we happened to read as part of our regular rotation was Psalm 41, which has this passage:

9 Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me.
10 But thou, O Lord, be merciful unto me, and raise me up, that I may requite them.
11 By this I know that thou favourest me, because mine enemy doth not triumph over me.

In John 13:18, Jesus quotes Psalm 41:9 referring to Judas, who will betray him. But the heel image comes from Genesis 3:

14 And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

So Judas’s betrayal of Jesus is a demonic parody of Christ’s victory over Satan, but in spite of what looks like a victory for the few days Christ is in the tomb, the enemy cannot triumph over him.

Today is Ascension Day. For forty days after his resurrection Christ appeared in the flesh to his disciples, and then, as the Apostles’ Creed says, “He ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father almighty. From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.”

O Almighty God, whose blessed Son our Savior Jesus Christ
ascended far above all heavens that he might fill all things:
Mercifully give us faith to perceive that, according to his
promise, he abideth with his Church on earth, even unto the
end of the ages; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who
liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, in
glory everlasting. Amen.

Rogationtide: Traditional prayers

 

Planting tip: Blackberries don't bloom till after your last frost

Last week I wrote about the season; today I want to share some traditional prayers for the Rogation days, which are today, tomorrow, and Wednesday—that is, the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday between the Sixth Sunday of Easter and Ascension Day (40 days after Easter).

The following collects are from the 1979 Book of Common Prayer, but they can also be found in the 2017 ACNA prayer book. [When used as a noun, “collect” is pronounced /COL-lect/.]

In our daily morning prayers, after the Lord’s Prayer we pray the collect for the previous Sunday followed by other prayers according to the season or specific prayer needs of our loved ones. During the Rogation days, after the collect of the day, we pray a different Rogation collect each day.


Sixth Sunday of Easter

O God, who hast prepared for those who love thee such
good things as pass man’s understanding:  Pour into our
hearts such love toward thee, that we, loving thee in all
things and above all things, may obtain thy promises, which
exceed all that we can desire; through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one
God, for ever and ever.  Amen.



For Rogation Days
For use on the traditional days or at other times

I. For fruitful seasons

Almighty God, Lord of heaven and earth:  We humbly pray
that thy gracious providence may give and preserve to our
use the harvests of the land and of the seas, and may prosper
all who labor to gather them, that we, who constantly receive
good things from thy hand, may always give thee thanks;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with
thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

II. For commerce and industry

Almighty God, whose Son Jesus Christ in his earthly life
shared our toil and hallowed our labor: Be present with
thy people where they work; make those who carry on
the industries and commerce of this land responsive to thy
will; and give to us all a pride in what we do, and a just
return for our labor; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who
liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

III. For stewardship of creation

O merciful Creator, whose hand is open wide to satisfy the
needs of every living creature: Make us, we beseech thee,
ever thankful for thy loving providence; and grant that we,
remembering the account that we must one day give, may be
faithful stewards of thy bounty; through Jesus Christ our
Lord, who with thee and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth,
one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

Rogationtide: Praying for mercy and for fruitful seasons

 

Everything is burgeoning! The dogwoods, irises, and peonies have finished blooming, but the clematis and pinks are going wild and the lavender shooting out bloom stalks. I love this time of year.

My youngest daughter has started two bed in a sunny spot in our back yard that are modelled after the traditional “three sisters” way of planting. First she planted corn and sunflowers. Now that they’re coming up nicely she’s going to plant beans, which will twine up the stalks of the taller plants, then in a few weeks she’ll plant squashes, which will flourish on the ground below the other plants.

This coming Sunday will be the sixth Sunday of the Easter season. Up until fairly recently the Gospel reading for this Sunday was John 16:23-33, which begins, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you.” The Latin word for ask is rogare, and so this Sunday is known in liturgical churches as “Rogation Sunday.”

One of the traditional prayers for this brief season is the prayer for fruitful seasons:

Almighty God, Lord of heaven and earth: We humbly pray that thy gracious providence may give and preserve to our use the harvests of the land and of the seas, and may prosper all who labor to gather them that we, who constantly receive good things from thy had, may always give thee thanks; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

I have written before about some of the festive ways Christians have kept the days between Rogation Sunday and Ascension Thursday, but this week something new struck me and I wanted to mention it here.

Over the last year I’ve been dipping into Eleanor Parker’s delightful book, Winters in the World: A Journey Through the Anglo-Saxon Year, and last night I read her section called “Holy and Healthy Days,” which is on the origins of Rogationtide and the ways the early medieval English Christians kept this season. She mentions one of Aelfric’s sermons for Rogationtide and describes how the season was a penitential season as well as a festive one. Aelfric says that during this season, “we should pray for abundance of our earthly fruits, and for health and peace for ourselves, and, what is still greater, for the forgiveness of our sins” (pp. 157-158).

So, on the Rogation Days (the three days between Rogation Sunday and Ascension Day), the priests and parishioners would walk around the parish boundaries not only praying for fruitful seasons, but also praying for the forgiveness of their own sins and for the Lord’s mercy on their city. In his History, Bede quotes a chant from the Gallican Rogation Litany:

We pray Thee, O Lord, in all Thy mercy, that Thy wrath and anger may be turned away from this city and from Thy holy house, for we are sinners. Amen.

As Parker puts it so beautifully, “The Rogation Days seek physical and spiritual health for the individual, the community and the natural world; all are connected, one harmonious whole” (p. 162).

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For more on Aelfric’s sermon and the medieval traditions, see Eleanor Parker’s blog post at The Clerk of Oxford.

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Rogationtide, part two: Traditional prayers

Chaucer and Spenser

 

Studying for my upcoming conference talk and came across this gem:

"Spenser, almost alone among Elizabethans, drank deeply from Chaucer's poetry and shared his vision."
J.A.W. Bennett, The Parlement of Foules: An Interpretation

You know Spenser's Faerie Queene is going to come up in my talk, right? :-D 

This conference is going to be fantastic. Jason Baxter, author of The Medieval Mind of C.S. Lewis, will be speaking in addition to Angelina Stanford, Thomas Banks, and Jenn Rogers. Read more about it here.

Spoilers!

Canterbury Tales Prologue
ca. 1400-1410, mssEL 26 C 9, Huntington Digital Library

 Last spring I had planned to take a class on Chaucer at my local college but that didn't work out for a number of reasons. To soothe my disappointment I've been reading some of his poetry as well as various things about Chaucer and his poetry. Today I was listening to a lecture by Seth Lerer and he mentioned something I've never heard before about medieval reading habits. He said that people used to pick up a book they were about to read with the left hand, then open the back cover with the right hand and read the last few lines there. Then they'd flip to the front of the book and start reading from the beginning.

In an age when a large part of story-telling was retelling older stories, no one worried about spoilers. Homer and Virgil both begin their epics by telling the reader how the story is going to end. 

Knowing this habit, medieval authors were fairly deliberate about the final lines of their stories, which makes for some interesting features. The last lines of The Canterbury Tales are this inscription:

HERE IS ENDED THE BOOK OF THE TALES OF CAUNTERBURY
COMPILED BY GEFFREY CHAUCER,
OF WHOS SOULE JHESU CRIST HAVE MERCY,
AMEN.

The reader would then flip to the front and begin reading the Prologue.

Curious, I flipped through some of my older books to remind myself how they ended. Most of them let you know what kind of story you'll be reading, whether it has a happy or sad ending. A few allude to the beginning of the story.

One that caught my attention was the ending of Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso:

And lifting his victorious hand on hie,
   In that Turks face he stabd his dagger twise
   Up to the hilts, and quickly made him die,
   And rid himselfe of trouble in a trice:
   Downe to the lake, where damned ghosts do lie,
   Sunke his disdainfull soule, now cold as Ise,
   Blaspheming as it went, and cursing lowd,
   That was on earth so loftie and so proud.
(tr. Sir John Harington)

This is almost exactly the way The Aeneid ends:

In the same breath, blazing with wrath he plants
his iron sword hilt-deep in his enemy's heart.
Turnus' limbs went limp in the chill of death.
His life breath fled with a groan of outrage
down to the shades below.
(tr. Robert Fagles)

Which brings me back to my earlier point about there being no spoilers in ancient and medieval literature. 

And even if a reader didn't look at the end before beginning, each book of Orlando Furioso opens with an "Argument," a few lines that tell the reader what will happen in that book.