Letter 2040: When the king of the Franks, drawn by the fame of our table, requested a lyre player from us with great urgency, we...

40. KING THEODERIC TO THE PATRICIAN BOETHIUS. [1] When the king of the Franks, drawn by the renown of our banquet, had begged of us with great entreaties for a citharist [lyre-player], we promised that this could be fulfilled solely by your means, since we knew you to be skilled in the science of music. For it falls to you to choose a learned man, you who were able to attain that very discipline, set as it is upon a height. [2] For what is more excellent than that which regulates the fabric of the heavens with sonorous sweetness and embraces, by the grace of its own power, the harmony of nature scattered everywhere? For whatever exists in the conception of any modulation does not depart from the coherence of harmony. Through it we think rightly, we speak beautifully, we move fittingly: and as often as it reaches our ears by the law of its discipline, it commands song; the skilled hearing transforms our minds, [3] and when this laborious delight has come forth from the secret of nature, like a queen of the senses adorned with her figures, the remaining thoughts leap away, and it makes all things be cast out, so that it alone may take pleasure in being heard. It gladdens harmful sadness, it tempers swollen rages, it renders bloody savagery gentle, it rouses sluggishness that drowses in languor, it restores most healthful rest to those who are wakeful, it recalls chastity, corrupted by base love, to honorable pursuit, it heals the weariness of the mind that is ever opposed to good thoughts, it converts destructive hatreds to helping grace, and (what is a blessed kind of healing) through the sweetest pleasures it drives out the passions of the soul. [4] It soothes the incorporeal soul in a bodily way, and by hearing alone leads it whither it wills, the soul which it cannot hold by a word: silent, it cries out with the hands, without a mouth it speaks, and through the service of insensible things it prevails to exercise dominion over the senses. The whole of this is conducted among men by five tones, each of which is called by the names of the provinces where they were found. For divine mercy scattered grace by region, while it made all its own works greatly worthy of praise. The Dorian is the bestower of prudence and the producer of chastity. The Phrygian stirs up battles and inflames the desire of fury. The Aeolian calms the tempests of the mind and grants sleep to those already pacified. The Iastian sharpens the dull intellect, and to those weighed down by earthly desire it works and indulges an appetite for heavenly goods. The Lydian, devised against the soul's excessive cares and weariness, repairs it with relief and strengthens it with delight. [5] The corruptible age, bending this to dances, made an honorable remedy be reckoned a shameful invention. But this number of five consists of a threefold division. For every tone has a highest and a lowest: and these are spoken of in relation to a middle. And since those things cannot exist without one another which are referred to each other by alternate exchange, it was usefully discovered that artificial music, that is, the music refined by the works of authors upon diverse instruments, is contained in fifteen modes. [6] To these things human skill, adding something greater, gathered for the earth by most learned inquiry a certain harmony which is called the diapason, assembled namely out of all, so that this marvelous union might contain the powers which the whole melody could have possessed. Hence Orpheus effectively ruled over dumb animals, and invited wandering flocks, despising their pastures, rather to the feasts of listening. While he sang, the dry Tritons loved the lands: Galatea sported on solid ground: the bears deserted the lovely woods: the lions at last left their familiar reed-thickets: beside its predator the prey rejoiced. Contrary desires were gathered into one assembly, and, with the lyre speaking in good faith, all things opposed to one another believed themselves at peace. [7] Amphion of Dirce too is said by his singing to have founded the Theban walls with his strings, so that, while he was raising men languid with toil to the pursuit of perfection, the very stones were believed to have come, leaving their crags behind. Musaeus also, son both of the art of Orpheus and of nature, the most powerful tongue of Maro [Virgil] celebrates, saying that he was established among the dead in the highest blessedness, because through the Elysian fields he gladdened the happy souls with the strokes of seven strings, signifying that he enjoys the highest reward to whom it has fallen to feast on the sweetnesses of this discipline. [8] But all these things seem to be accomplished by human effort through manual music. The natural rhythm, however, is recognized as assigned to the living voice: which then beautifully keeps the melody, if it is silent at the right moment, speaks fittingly, and through accents proceeds along the way with musical feet in composed voice. There was also discovered, for the moving of minds, the strong and sweet speech of orators, so that judges grow angry at the guilty and pity the erring: and whatever the eloquent man can accomplish, there is no doubt that it pertains to the glory of this discipline. [9] To the poets also, as Terentianus attests, two principal meters were at first assigned, that is, the heroic and the iambic, the one to elevate, the other to appease. From these, for the delighting of the minds of hearers, diverse meters were begotten; and as the tones in instruments, so in the human voice the pregnant meters brought forth various affections of the mind. [10] Curious antiquity reports that the Sirens sang to the point of wonder, and although the waves carried the sailors onward and the wind filled the sails, they chose, being sweetly deceived, to run upon the rocks, lest they should suffer so great a sweetness to pass by. From these only the Ithacan [Odysseus] escaped, who at once blocked the seducing hearing of his sailors. Against the harmful sweetness that most prudent man devised a most fortunate deafness, and that which they could not overcome by understanding they better overcame by not perceiving. But he himself bound himself to the solidity of the mast with tightened knots, so that he might both be able to test the famous songs with free ears and, bound, escape the dangers of the sweet-sounding voice while the wave swept him on. [11] But that we too, after the example of the wise Ithacan, may pass over such things, let us speak of that psaltery fallen from heaven, which a man, sung throughout the whole world, composed thus modulated for the salvation of the soul, that by these hymns both the wounds of the mind are healed and the singular grace of divinity is sought out. Behold what the age may marvel at and believe: the Davidic lyre drove out the devil: the sound commanded the spirits: and at the playing of the cithara the king returned to liberty, whom the inward enemy was shamefully possessing. [12] For although many instruments of this delight have been devised, yet nothing more effective has been found for moving minds than the soothing resonance of the hollow cithara. Hence too we judge the string (chorda) to be so called, because it easily moves hearts (corda): where so great a concord of voices has been gathered under such diversity, that a neighboring string when struck makes another tremble of its own accord, which no one has chanced to touch. For so great is the power of agreement, that it makes an insensible thing move of its own accord, because it is established that its companion has been set in motion. [13] Hence come diverse voices without a tongue: hence by various sounds a certain most sweet chorus is produced, that one sharp by excessive tension, this one deep by some slackness, this middle one most soothingly tempered in its back, so that men cannot bring themselves to so great a unity as that to which things lacking reason have attained in social agreement. For there whatever sounds excellently, whatever weightily, whatever harshly, whatever most purely, and other distinctions, stands as it were gathered into one ornament; and as a diadem with the varied light of its gems delights the eyes, so the cithara with its diversity of sound charms the hearing. [14] It is the eloquent web of the Muses, the wordy threads, the singing strings, in which by the clear-sounding plectrum is veiled that which is sweetly heard. This, then, in imitation of the varied tortoise-shell, Mercury is said to have invented; and the astronomers thought that one procuring such great benefits ought to be sought among the stars, persuading us that music is heavenly, since they were able to grasp the form of the lyre set among the constellations. [15] But the harmony of heaven cannot fittingly be explained in human speech, which reason has given only to the mind, but which nature has not disclosed to the ears. For they say it ought to be believed that heavenly blessedness enjoys those delights which neither fail with any end nor wither by any interruption. For they declare that the celestial beings dwell in understanding itself, enjoy the heavenly things by those very delights, and, cleaving to such contemplations, are continually held by blessed delights. [16] They judged well indeed, if they had placed the cause of heavenly blessedness not in sounds, but in the Creator, where truly there is joy without end, eternity always abiding without any weariness, and the mere beholding of divinity brings it about that nothing can be more blessed. This truly bestows perpetuity, this accumulates joys: and just as apart from Him the creature does not exist, so without Him it cannot have unchangeable gladness. [17] But since a pleasurable digression has been made by us, because it is always agreeable to converse about learning with the skilled, let your wisdom choose for the present time a better citharist, whom we said was requested of us, one who will do something of Orpheus when he has tamed the fierce hearts of the heathen with sweet sound. And as great thanks as shall be rendered to us, so great shall be returned to you also by equal compensation, you who both obey our command and accomplish that which can make you illustrious.

XL. BOETHIO PATRICIO THEODERICUS REX. [1] Cum rex Francorum convivii nostri fama pellectus a nobis citharoedum magnis precibus expetisset, sola ratione complendum esse promisimus, quod te eruditionis musicae peritum esse noveramus. adiacet enim vobis doctum eligere, qui disciplinam ipsam in arduo collocatam potuistis attingere. [2] Quid enim illa praestantius, quae caeli machinam sonora dulcedine modulatur et naturae convenientiam ubique dispersam virtutis suae gratia comprehendit? quicquid enim in conceptum alicuius modificationis existit, ab harmoniae continentia non recedit. per hanc competenter cogitamus, pulchre loquimur, convenienter movemur: quae quotiens ad aures nostras disciplinae suae lege pervenerit, imperat cantum, mutat animos artifex auditus, [3] et operosa delectatio haec cum de secreto naturae tamquam sensuum regina tropis suis ornata processerit, reliquae cogitationes exiliunt omniaque facit eici, ut ipsam solummodo delectet audiri. tristitiam noxiam iucundat, tumidos furores attenuat, cruentam saevitiam efficit blandam, excitat ignaviam soporantem languore, vigilantibus reddit saluberrimam quietem, vitiatam turpi amore ad honestum studium revocat castitatem, sanat mentis taedium bonis cogitationibus semper adversum, perniciosa odia convertit ad auxiliatricem gratiam et quod beatum genus curationis est, per dulcissimas voluptates expellit animi passiones. [4] Incorpoream animam corporaliter mulcet et solo auditu ad quod vult deducit, quam tenere non praevalet verbo: tacitus manibus clamat, sine ore loquitur et per insensibilium obsequium praevalet sensuum exercere dominatum. hoc totum inter homines quinque tonis agitur, qui singuli provinciarum ubi reperti sunt nominibus vocitantur. miseratio quippe divina localiter sparsit gratiam, dum omnia sua valde fecit esse laudanda. Dorius prudentiae largitor et castitatis effector est. Phrygius pugnas excitat, votum furoris inflammat. Aeolius animi tempestates tranquillat somnumque iam placatis attribuit. Iastius intellectum obtusis acuit et terreno desiderio gravatis caelestium appetentiam bonorum operator indulget. Lydius contra nimias curas animae taediaque repertus remissione reparat et oblectatione corroborat. [5] Hoc ad saltationes corruptibile saeculum flectens honestum remedium turpe fecit esse commentum. hic vero numerus quinarius trina divisione consistit. omnis enim tonus habet summum et imum: haec autem dicuntur ad medium. et quoniam sine se esse non possunt quae alterna sibi vicissitudine referuntur, utiliter inventum est artificialem musicam, id est auctorum operationibus diversis organis exquisitam, modis quindecim contineri. [6] His rebus aliquid maius adiciens humana sollertia terris quandam harmoniam doctissima inquisitione collegit, quae diapason nominatur, ex omnibus scilicet congregata, ut virtutes, quas universum melos habere potuisset, haec adunatio mirabilis contineret. hinc Orpheus mutis animalibus efficaciter imperavit vagosque greges contemptis pascuis ad audiendi epulas potius invitavit. illo cantante amaverunt siccas Tritones terras: Galatea lusit in solidis: deseruerunt ursi amabiles silvas: leones domestica tandem canneta reliquerunt: iuxta praedonem suum praeda gaudebat. in unum conventum contraria vota collecta sunt et fide dicente lyra omnia sibi adversa crediderunt. [7] Amphion quoque Dircaeus canendo chordis Thebanos muros dicitur condidisse, ut, cum homines labore marcidos ad studium perfectionis erigeret, saxa ipsa crederentur relictis rupibus advenisse. Musaeum etiam, et artis Orphei filium et naturae, Maronis praepotens lingua concelebrat, dicens apud inferos in summa beatitudine constitutum, quod per Elysios campos felices animas septem chordarum pulsibus amoenabat, significans summo praemio perfrui, cui disciplinae huius contigerit suavitatibus epulari. [8] Sed haec omnia humano studio per manualem musicam videntur effecta. naturalis autem rhythmus animatae voci cognoscitur attributus: qui tunc melos pulchre custodit, si apte taceat, congruenter loquatur et per accentus viam musicis pedibus composita voce gradiatur. inventa est quoque ad permovendos animos oratorum fortis ac suavis oratio, ut criminosis irascantur iudices, misereantur errantibus: et quicquid potest eloquens efficere, ad huius disciplinae non est dubium gloriam pertinere. [9] Poetis etiam, Terentiano testante, duo primum metra principalia sunt tributa, id est heroicum et iambicum, unum quod erigeret, alterum quod placaret. ex quibus ad oblectandos animos audientum diversa progenita sunt et ut in organis toni, ita in humana voce varias animi affectiones gravida metra pepererunt. [10] Sirenas in miraculum cantasse curiosa prodit antiquitas et quamvis navigantes fluctus abduceret, carbasa ventus inflaret, eligebant suaviter decepti scopulos incurrere, ne tantam paterentur dulcedinem praeterire. quibus solus Ithacus evasit, qui nautis sollicitatorem protinus obstruxit auditum. contra noxiam dulcedinem cogitavit vir prudentissimus felicissimam surditatem et quam vincere intellegendo non poterant, melius non advertendo superabant. se vero soliditati arboris constrictis nexibus illigavit, ut et famosos cantus liberis auribus probare potuisset et pericula dulcisonae vocis unda rapiente vinctus evaderet. [11] Verum ut et nos talia exemplo sapientis Ithaci transeamus, loquamur de illo lapso caelo psalterio, quod vir toto orbe cantabilis ita modulatum pro animae sospitate composuit, ut his hymnis et mentis vulnera sanentur et divinitatis singularis gratia conquiratur. en quod saeculum miretur et credat: pepulit Davitica lyra diabolum: sonus spiritibus imperavit: et canente cithara rex in libertatem rediit, quem internus inimicus turpiter possidebat. [12] Nam licet huius delectationis organa multa fuerint exquisita, nihil tamen efficacius inventum est ad permovendos animos quam concavae citharae blanda resultatio. hinc etiam appellatam aestimamus chordam, quod facile corda moveat: ubi tanta vocum collecta est sub diversitate concordia, ut vicina chorda pulsata alteram faciat sponte contremiscere, quam nullum contigit attigisse. tanta enim vis est convenientiae, ut rem insensualem sponte se movere faciat, quia eius sociam constat agitatam. [13] Hinc diversae veniunt sine lingua voces: hinc variis sonis efficitur quidam suavissimus chorus, illa acuta nimia tensione, ista gravis aliqua laxitate, haec media tergo blandissime temperato, ut homines se ad tantam perducere non praevaleant unitatem, in quantam ad socialem convenientiam ratione carentia pervenerunt. ibi enim quicquid excellenter, quicquid ponderatim, quicquid rauce, quicquid purissime aliasque distantias sonat, quasi in unum ornatum constat esse collectum, et ut diadema oculis varia luce gemmarum, sic cithara diversitate soni blanditur auditui. [14] Musarum tela loquax, stamina verbosa, fila canentia, in quibus arguto plectro tegitur quod dulciter audiatur. hanc igitur ad imitationem variae testudinis Mercurius dicitur invenisse, quam tanta utillima procurantem astronomi inter stellas requirendam esse putaverunt, persuadentes caelestem esse musicam, quando lyrae formam comprehendere potuerunt inter sidera collocatam. [15] Harmonia vero caeli humano sermone idonee non potest explicari, quam ratio tantum animo dedit, sed auribus natura non prodidit. dicunt enim debere credi, ut beatitudo caelestis illis oblectationibus perfruatur, quae nec fine deficit nec aliqua intermissione marcescit. in ipso quippe intellectu habitare referunt superna, ipsis deliciis caelestia perfrui et talibus contemplationibus inhaerentia beatis iugiter delectationibus contineri. [16] Bene quidem arbitrati, si causam caelestis beatitudinis non in sonis, sed in creatore posuissent, ubi veraciter sine fine gaudium est, sine aliquo taedio manens semper aeternitas, et inspectio sola divinitatis efficit, ut beatius esse nil possit. haec veraciter perennitatem praestat, haec iucunditates accumulat: et sicut praeter ipsam creatura non extat, ita sine ipsa incommutabilem laetitiam habere non praevalet. [17] Sed quoniam nobis facta est voluptuosa digressio, quia semper gratum est de doctrina colloqui cum peritis, citharoedum, quem a nobis diximus postulatum, sapientia vestra eligat praesenti tempore meliorem, facturus aliquid Orphei, cum dulci sono gentilium fera corda domuerit. et quantae nobis gratiae fuerint actae, tantae vobis et nostrae aequabili compensatione referuntur, qui et imperio nostro paretis et quod vos clarificare possit, efficitis.