Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of Figures
- Introduction
- 1 String versus Wind Instruments: The Ancient Tradition of the Musical Cosmos
- 2 The Harmony of the Divine Christian Order
- 3 The Harmony of Earthly Rule: Erasmus of Rotterdam and Jean Bodin
- 4 Emblematic Literature and the Ideal Ruler
- 5 Musical Emblems of the State in Seventeenth-Century Spain: Amphion, Timotheus Milesius, Marsyas and the Sirens
- 6 The Celestial Lyre: Royal Virtues and Harmonious Rule
- 7 Cosmic Harmony, Royal Wisdom and Eloquence
- 8 The Death of the Monarch and the Discord of the Elements
- Conclusion
- Notes
- Works Cited
- Index
2 - The Harmony of the Divine Christian Order
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of Figures
- Introduction
- 1 String versus Wind Instruments: The Ancient Tradition of the Musical Cosmos
- 2 The Harmony of the Divine Christian Order
- 3 The Harmony of Earthly Rule: Erasmus of Rotterdam and Jean Bodin
- 4 Emblematic Literature and the Ideal Ruler
- 5 Musical Emblems of the State in Seventeenth-Century Spain: Amphion, Timotheus Milesius, Marsyas and the Sirens
- 6 The Celestial Lyre: Royal Virtues and Harmonious Rule
- 7 Cosmic Harmony, Royal Wisdom and Eloquence
- 8 The Death of the Monarch and the Discord of the Elements
- Conclusion
- Notes
- Works Cited
- Index
Summary
In this chapter, I will analyse how the Christian world view assimilated those classical musical metaphors of the orderly polity and the ideal ruler. I will focus on thinkers who had an impact on the musical iconography of power in seventeenth-century Spain and its territories, such as St Augustine, John of Salisbury and Thomas Aquinas; this will show that the musical model of the community underlies both the political archetype of the Kingdom of God and the one that sees the state as a reflection of the order of nature.
Early Christianity acknowledged the legitimacy of political power and the divine origin of the imperial office, although it denied the divinity of the emperor himself. Christian musical metaphors of power emerged in a cultural frame that saw in Rome a legitimate political institution which, leaving aside its pagan sacrality, had reduced an infinity of diverse peoples to the peace and harmony of one single law. The Roman state, the argument went, although not divine in itself, fulfilled a divine mission, and therefore existed as a link between the divine world and that of politics: once such great polity could be stripped of its pagan aspects, it could be incorporated into the Christian order and fully accomplish the mission which God had assigned to it.
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- Publisher: Pickering & ChattoFirst published in: 2014