Quadrivium and Music Theory Taylor Morgeson

When we study Boethius we nd that among the many things he is credited with, his

coinage of the term quadrivium is probably the most infamous. This came about from Boethius attempt to categorize the ancient liberal arts in the early 6th century a.d. The counter part to the quadrivium is known as the trivium. The trivium means three roads and represents grammar, logic, and rhetoric (dialectics); likewise, the quadrivium means crossroads and represents arithmetic, geometry, astronomy/astrology, and music theory (numbers).1 Leonardo da Vincis encyclopedic diagram of the quadrivium and trivium can be seen in the The Vitruvian Man, example 1.

Example 1. Vitrucian Man, Da Vinci (trivium-3 legs, quadrivium-4 arms).

John C. Trautman, The New College Latin and English Dictionary. (New York: Bantam Dell, 2007) p. 353.

The modern denition of liberal arts can be misleading so a distinction should to be

made. Liberal or liberales means freedom but the root word liber or book implies freedom, freedom through study. Arts or artes means skills or practices, so the 7 ancient liberal arts can be considered the skills necessary to attain intellectual freedom.2 The ancients Greeks were also trying to achieve balance through a well rounded education. Quintilianus says his type of education is called paideia. Paideia is cultural development which seeks to to produce accord (harmony) with the seemly by means of mental and physical assent to the seemly.3 Paideia is preparation for understanding harmonia.4 Ancient Greek music expert Thomas J. Mathiesen states, Theorists primarily concerned with music as an analogue for higher philosophical truths conceive the harmonia as manifesting certain basic proportions, orders, and characters mimetic of higher universals, even when applying the term to certain scales or genera, which are seen as analogues. 5
The origin of the number based liberal arts comes from Pythagoras of Samos. He is

universally credited as the father of Greek music theory because of the legend of The Harmonious Blacksmith.6 In this story Pythagoras hears consonant sounds coming from the blacksmiths shop and discovers the hammers weigh 6, 8, 9, and 12 pounds, respectively. He then builds a monochord and with these ratios begins to dene intervals with the whole numbers

Ibid. p. 68.

3 Aristides

Quintilianus, De Musica; Peri mousikes; English On music, in three book. Translation with introduction, commentary, and annotations by Thomas J. Mathiesen. (London: Yale University Press, 1983) p. 115.
4

Ibid. p. 14-57, Harmonia is discussed throughout.

Thomas J. Mathiesen, Harmonia and Ethos in Ancient Greek Music, The Journal of Musicology 3/3 (Summer, 1984), p. 267.
6

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/pythagoras/

ratios consisting of the numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4. Shown in the form of a triangle this grouping is known as the tetractys, see example 2.

Example 2, tetractys, Pythagoras.

Click to enlarge THE TETRACTYS.

From the tetractys come the whole numbers: 1, 2, 3, 4, was symbol of the greatest Theon of Smyrna declares that the ten dots, or tetractys of Pythagoras,whichacan express the followingimportance, for to the discerning mind it revealed the mystery of universal nature. The Pythagoreans bound themselves by the ratios: unison-1:1 octave-2:1, a fth-3:2, a fourth-4:3. The curious thing about this story is that is following oath: "By Him who gave to our soul the tetractys, which hath the fountain and root of ever-springing nature." cannot possibly be true due to the fact that it is the weight of the anvil that would matter and not the hammer. So what is going here? In a sense we are looking an epistemology which relies on Aristotelean observation to discover and dene the Platonic forms. For instance, Pythagoras observes something in nature, creates an experiment, observes the results and derives a universal truth, which he then applies to another discipline successfully.

Click to enlarge THE CUBE AND THE STAR.

Mathematics-The use of number, or simple mathematics, is the basis of the other 3

By connecting the ten dots of the tetractys, nine triangles are formed. Six of these are involved in the forming of quadrivium subjects. There is, however, a numerological aspect witch relies on whole numbers the cube. The same triangles, when lines are properly drawn between them, also reveal the six-pointed star with a derived from music theory: 6, 8, in forming the cube 1, the star. the introduction the three unused dot in the center. Only seven dots are used 9, 12, and the tetractysand2, 3, 4. In Qabbalistically,to Aristides corner dots represent the threefold, invisible causal nature of the universe, while the seven dots involved in the Quintilianus Elohim--the Spirits of the seven creative periods. The Sabbath, or seventh day, cube and the star are the De Musica, Mathieson explains how Aristotle used these numbers determine stages is the central dot. 7
of pregnancy. He says the ancient Greeks considered 6 to be a magic number so they used a base 6 number system for many of their calculations, oddly enough they use it to correctly

Next: Pythagorean Mathematics

7

Quintilianus. p. 46.

calculate the correct age at which a child is to be born. Aristotle starts by adding 6+8+9+12 to get 35, and multiplies that by 6 which is 210 days or 7 months, the date he claims that a fetus begins developing its appendages. Next Aristotle adds the numbers of the tetractys 1+2+3+4 to get 10 and combines it with 35, to make 45. He then multiplies 6 with 45 to get 270 days, or 9 months.8 They would have viewed this incredible coincidence as divine perfection but it sheds a light on how music theory was in used in everyday life and why they attached so much importance to it.
Geometry/Architecture-When Ptolemy gives his description of an instrument called the

Helikon, named after Mount Helikon which is the home of the muses, he supplies a diagram of ratios.9 Example 4 shows the instrument along with the diagram of ratios calculated by Ptolemy.10

Example 4, Helikon with a diagram of ratios

Ibid. p. 48. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Helicon

10

Greek Musical Writings, Vol. 2: Harmonic and Acoustic Theory. Ed. by Andrew Barker (Cambridge University Press, 1989) p. 321.

Example 5 shows how music theory ratios can dominate the geometry in architecture; it shows
Music The images quadrivium can create a create harmonia by how 3 of the 4 subjects from the (Figure 3) by Steve Bass show how the laws of harmony in balancing numbers, music can be correlated to proportional relationships expressed geometrically and how music theory. this musical knowledge could have been used to inform the art of building. The first image shows how the fundamental note and its octave, as well as the fourth and the fifth tones are all easily found as proportional relationships through the diagonal and semi-diagonal of the square. Seeing pictures, of course, is nowhere near as romantic as actually hearing the harmonies produced in music, but this demonstrates a correExample 5, The Helikon ratios in archietecture. spondence of proportional relationships discoverable in both sound and geometry.

THE NEW PHILOSOPHY, JulyDecember 2009

architecture, and

Figure 3. (Image courtesy of Steve Bass)

Ratios based on pythagorean whole number rations can also be found on many friezes and
The second image architraves. [They] vary from 3/4:1/2shows theDoricdivision to the square in its diago- and Corinthian in the same style of 5/8:5/8 by the Ionic nal and semi-diagonal used to inform the layout of a classical Greek temple front and all of the proportions of the column and capital. This styles. Capitals are 1/2 in all the traditional principle of As whichso below.The shaft width is always 5/6 illustrates styles except Corinthian above, is 3/4. The largest and the smallest details correspond to each other in following the same pattern and proportions. It the awareness of common proportional at the top. Column bases are always 1/2. Inis thisPedestal, caps are always 1/4, dies are 8/6 and

bases are 3/4.11 This lesser known fact is overshadowed by modern fascination with the ancients use of the golden ratio in architecture. Perhaps this use of pythagorean number theory is why some buildings such as the Parthenon have been found to deviate from the golden ratio.12
Astronomy-A fascinating feature of the quadrivium is the focus on astronomy and its

916

relationship to music theory. The Greeks could not know cosmos directly so they did the next
11

Wikipedia-Proportion

12

George Markowsky, Misconceptions about the Golden Ratio, The College Mathematics Journal 23/1 (Jan., 1992), p. 6.

best thing and tried to makes sense of it through other, more tangible sciences, such as music and geometry. Although geometry plays a signicant role in ancient Greek astronomy, they identied the heavens with music most likely because music has motion, vibration and rhythm, just as the heavens were in motion and exhibited frequency and rhythm with the seasons and the tides. The ancient Greeks considered the heavens to be perfect and the origin of the platonic forms. They also considered music to be a type of mimesis, a lesser imitation which retained the essence of the cosmos; therefore they could understand the harmony of the spheres and the cosmos through the study of music theory. Quintilianus is quite certain about the cosmos and its relationship to music; Mathiesen says, Musical mimesis is especially powerful, according to Aristides Quintilianus, because it is not a simple imitation of things but is rather an imitation of life itself, capable of raising the soul once again to the harmonia of the universe. 13
Music theory was a true science, one that really could not be separated from the other

sciences. Its design is one of gestalt and only through the mastery of all 4 subjects could one hope to gain understanding. Quintilianus considered music to be the most important aspect to the quadrivium and crucial for knowing the cosmos. This is because music theory gives signicance to number as well as symmetry and proportion in geometry, it even acts as a type of primitive physics or celestial mechanics. Music theory helps us make sense of things that seem foreign and unrelated, in this way it helped give order to the ancient world and allowed for the discovery and use of platonic forms.

13

Mathiesen, Harmonia and Ethos in Ancient Greek Music. p. 267.

Bibliography Books Greek Musical Writings, Vol. 2: Harmonic and Acoustic Theory. Ed. by Andrew Barker. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989. Quintilianus, Aristides. De Musica; Peri mousikes; English On music, in three book. Translation with introduction, commentary, and annotations by Thomas J. Mathiesen. London: Yale University Press, 1983. Trautman, John C. The New College Latin and English Dictionary. New York: Bantam Dell, 2007. Articles Markowsky, George. Misconceptions about the Golden Ratio. The College Mathematics Journal 23/1 (Jan., 1992) p. 2-19. Mathieson, Thomas J. Harmonia and Ethos in Ancient Greek Music. The Journal of Musicology 3/3 (Summer, 1984), p. 264-279. Websites http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Helicon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proportion_(architecture) http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/pythagoras/