TAM Initiative

We continue our excursion through the ages to understand human perception regarding music. Now, keep the following proposition in mind: much discussion about music revolves around the question of whether or not it possesses an inherent moral capacity. After this brief review, we will try to reach a logical conclusion (as well as a true and biblical one) to this question.

From ancient Greece to the present, not only musicians but also philosophers have contributed to the discussion of the power and moral capacity of music. For example, “in the Republic, Plato explains his opinion on the qualities of the modes (musical scales) of his time.”[1] Believing that rhythm and harmony penetrated even to the soul, Plato taught that certain modes (what he called harmonia) promoted positive influences, while others were negative. Pythagoras, Democritus, and Aristotle are also among those who expressed their views on music.

After Christ, Boethius stands out in particular, with his treatise De Institutione Musica.[2] In the Western world of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, many philosophers sought answers in the philosophies of the ancient world, but they also developed new ideas that were progressively added to the scope of musical perception. Among these were the Reformers John Calvin and Martin Luther, who strongly believed in the power of music, although they did not share the same view regarding the musical form appropriate for the church.[3]

Entire curricula have already been developed on the basis of ideas about what music can and should do to us as individuals and members of society. Various scholars and preachers have adhered to certain philosophies from that distant past (without biblical authority) and establish rules about what constitutes good or bad music for society in general. The concept frequently promoted is that music (meaning a particular musical style) is the message in itself, regardless of lyrics and other aspects. Without clear biblical grounding, the proponents of this view assign, in a manner similar to philosophers since antiquity, an absolute moral quality to certain styles or musical characteristics. Is this really so? In the next article we will present some comments from musicians of the past.

[1] Denise Grocke, “Music is a moral law” — A Quotation from Plato?, Voices: A World Forum for Music Therapy (2006) (accessed December 11, 2012), http://testvoices.uib.no/?q=colgrocke061106. (My translation.)

[2] Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, De Institutione Musica. Accessed via IMSLP: http://imslp.org/wiki/De_Institutione_musica_(Bo%C3%ABthius,_Anicius_Manlius_Severinus)

[3] Peter Kivy, Introduction to a Philosophy of Music, http://books.google.com/books?id=CjCHIe438AgC (accessed August 6, 2010).