music for our soul
There is geometry in the humming of the strings. There is music in the spacing of the spheres. ~ Pythagoras (569–490 BCE)
The discovery of the precise relation between the pitch of the musical note and the length of the string that produces it is attributed to Pythagoras.
Philosopher, lute player, and father of numbers — Pythagoras of Samos remains something of an enigma. None of his writings survive today and his accomplishments are available to us only through the work of historians and his many devout followers.
We do know Pythagoras was the very first mathematical physicist — without recourse to mystic theories, he endeavored to explain the cosmos through his wave theory of the string in a system that came to be known as musica universalis or the music of the spheres.
“If earthly objects such as strings or pieces of metal make sounds when put in motion, so too must the Moon, the planets, the Sun and even the highest stars. As these heavenly objects are forever in motion, orbiting the Earth, surely they must be forever producing sound.”
The Music of the Spheres incorporates the metaphysical principle that mathematical relationships express qualities or tones of energy which manifest in numbers, visual angles, shapes and sounds — all connected within a pattern of proportion.
The connection between music, mathematics, and astronomy had a profound impact on history. It resulted in music’s inclusion in the Quadrivium — the medieval curriculum that made up the seven liberal arts, which are still the basis for higher education today — arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy, and the Trivium (grammar, logic, and rhetoric).
