Philo on Music

Author(s): Siegmund Levarie

Source: The Journal of Musicology, Vol. 9, No. 1 (Winter, 1991), pp. 124-130
Published by: University of California Press
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Commentary

Philo on Music
SIEGMUND

LEVARIE

hilo is generally recognized as one of the most

influential philosophers of the Graeco-Roman era. Yet his references
to music-unlike those of his predecessors Plato and Aristotle, or of
his successors St. Augustine and Boethius-have remained buried in
his voluminous writings. There is some justification for this neglect.
Philo was not concerned with music theory, as were the philosophers
mentioned above. Whatever he says about music is characteristic of
his period rather than original. As an educated Jew, son of a wealthy
Roman civil servant, living in the sophisticated Grecian society of
Alexandria at the time of Christ, he explored the musical traditions
transmitted through the Old Testament and Plato to his contemporaries. He was aware of performance practices and musical thoughts
around him and used his musical knowledge and observations for
frequent and telling illuminations of his philosophic treatises.
All ancient civilizations seem to have placed music at the source of
their religious and cultural experiences. In his brilliant interpretation
of Indian philosophy, for instance, Antonio de Nicolas writes: "It is
essential ... that we get ourselves ready to move, in one swift jump,
from the prosaic, discursive, lengthy and conceptual ground on which
we are accustomed to stand, into the moving, shifting, resounding,
evanescent, vibrating and always sounding ... musical world on
which the Rg Veda stands."' An approach of this kind to the Bible
yields meanings with which Philo and his generation were well familiar. His exegesis of the Creation, to give an example, abounds in
musical analogies, allegories, and metaphors, of which the following is
a good representative (De opificiomundi 89-128).
Volume IX * Number 1 * Winter 1991
The Journal of Musicology ? 1991 by the Regents of the University of California
Meditationsthroughthe Rg Veda (Stony Brook, New York: Nicolas Hays, 1976), p.

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PHILO

ON MUSIC

God invests the seventh day with dignity to celebrate the completion of the whole world. Philo doubts "whether anyone could adequately celebrate the properties of the number 7, for they are beyond
all words. Yet the fact that it is more wondrous than all that is said
about it is no reason for maintaining silence."2 The number 7 is a
"bringer of perfection." It is "absolutely harmonious and ... the
source of the most beautiful musical arrangement [diagrdmmatos]
which contains all the intervals [harmonias]:the fourth, fifth, and octave; and the arithmetic, geometric, and harmonic progressions [analogias] as well. The mathematical table is formed out of the numbers
6, 8, 9, 12. Now 8:6 is as 4:3, the interval [harmonia]of the fourth; 9:6
is as 3:2, the interval of the fifth; 12:6 is as 2:1, that of the octave."

Philo lists "all these qualities and more" related to the "marvelous
nature" of the number 7 but returns, here and elsewhere, to stressing
its influence by way of music, one of the "noblest of sciences."
The virtues of the quantity 7 are explained by the "beautiful
sounds" of the musical world-the opposite of the approach modern
physicists would take. For Philo, numbers are symbols of deeper
truths, best revealed through music. He asks, "why are there io commandments? io high holidays? a fast on the loth day of the period of
Atonement?" (De specialibus legibus II, 200). Again he refers to the
musical intervals mentioned above, adding that lo "also contains the
ratio of 9:8 [the wholetone], so that it sums up fully and perfectly the
leading truths of musical science, and for this reason [italics mine] io
has received its name of the all-perfect."
Such statements are not startling in a world oriented toward
sound and music rather than sight and touch. Philo lived in a period
of decisive spiritual change. In the Old Testament, God is a voice. He
creates the world by saying, "Let there be." He speaks to mortals but
does not show himself. In the New Testament, God becomes visible.
He appears on this earth. Most of Philo's metaphors and allegories are
still acoustical. "For as the lyra or any musical instrument is out of
tune [ekmeles]if even one tone and nothing more be false [apodos],but
in harmony when a single plucking produces consonant sounds, so it
is the same way with the instrument of the soul which is dissonant
[asymphonon]when stretched too far by rashness toward the highest
pitch or when it is relaxed beyond measure by cowardice and loosened toward the lowest" (De ebrietate116).
2
The English text throughout this essay is that of the Loeb Classical Library (12
volumes), with modifications based on my own translation from the Greek. The modifications affect particularly, but not exclusively, musical terms which understandably
troubled the otherwise superior philologists.

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In a similar spirit he writes about "the vast multitude of ills which

are found in the individual man, especially when the combination of
voices within him is out of tune and unmusical" (De confusione linguarum 15). The unrhythmic, unmeasured, and disproportionate in
man can be healed through rhythm, meter, and proportion by way of
polished music (De cherubim 105). "Music will charm away the unrhythmic by its rhythm, the incongruous by its proportions, the false
and tuneless by its melody, and thus reduce discord to concord" (De
congressuquaerendaeeruditionisgratia 16).
Philo takes the spiritual quality of music for granted, and only a
society which thinks of music merely as entertainment will find his
views esoteric. "The ears hear, but the mind through the ears hears
better than the ears" (De congressuquaerendaeeruditionisgratia 143-44).
The relation of the metaphysical truth of music to the earthly
executor of the art furnishes a recurring motive: "When a musician or
scholar has died, the music or scholarship that has abode in individual
masters has indeed perished with him, but the original pattern of
these remain and may be said to live as long as the world lasts; and by
conforming to these, the men of this generation and those of all
future generations in perpetual succession will attain to being musicians or scholars" (Quod deteriuspotiori insidiari potet 75). And: "For
states are better than the individuals who embody them, as music is
better than the musician ... and every art than every artist, better
both in everlastingness and in power and in unerring mastery over its
subject matter" (De mutationenominum 122).
Philo's musical references must not be understood as poetic sentimentalities. While not a professional musician, he knew the basic
facts of music theory and practice. He quotes the then accepted organization of musical "science" into rhythm, meter, melos; into chromatic, enharmonic, diatonic species; into the main intervals of fourth,
fifth, octave; and into conjunct and disjunct melodies (De agricultura
137). Introducing the five senses as "understanding's messengers"
and "bodyguards of the soul," he devotes a specific discourse to sound
and the particular virtues of structured tone: "Sound altogether does
not elude our discernment ... We know that one tone is high, another
low; one fitting a melody and proportionate, another out of tune and
most unmusical; one louder and another softer. Tones also differ in
countless other respects: in genera, timbre, intervals, conjunct or disjunct systems, and consonances ... In articulate sound, moreover, an
advantage possessed by man alone of all living creatures is that sound
is sent up from understanding; that in the mouth it acquires articulation; that the beat or stroke of the tongue imparts articulation and
speech to the tension of the voice; and that the result is not just idle

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PHILO

ON MUSIC

sound and unshapen noise because it is ruled by the mind, its herald
and interpreter"

(De somniis I, 27-29).

Having praised the human voice as the "chief and most perfect of
all instruments" which sets "a pattern made ready beforehand for the
instruments that were to be fashioned artificially," Philo turns to the
structure of the ear (De posteritateCaini 103 ff., probably leaning on
Cicero's similar exposition in De natura deorum II, 159): "Nature
turned [the ear] with her lathe, and made it spherical, drawing circles
within circles, lesser within larger, in order that the sound that approached it might not escape and be dispersed outside of it, but that
the thing heard might be collected and enclosed within by the circles,
and being as it were poured through them, be conveyed into the
receptacles of the mind. We see here at once a model for the theatres
seen in thriving cities, for theatres are constructed in exact imitation
of the shape of the ear." Along the same lines, Philo explains that the
windpipe in the human throat is structured precisely so as to be able
to sing all genera, modes, and intervals, by step or skip. Instruments
are merely imitations of this natural model. But both voice and instruments must be controlled by our mind. "Forjust as an instrument
put into the hands of an unmusical person is tuneless, but in the
hands of a musician answers to the skill which he possesses and becomes tuneful, in exactly the same way speech or sound set in motion
by a worthless mind is without tune, but when set going by a worthy
one is discovered to be in perfect tune." Elsewhere he comments: "It
is our business not to practice music unmusically" (Quod deteriuspotiori
insidiari solet 17-18).
Metaphor and analogy provide a ready link to musical practices.
Tone qualities and behavior set a model for human qualities and
behavior. Musical instruments are proportionally marked off to give
each tone its fitting pitch and adapt it so as to sound well together with
other tones. Similarly man should apportion his actions in "proper
sections" (De sacrificiisAbelis et Caini 74). The soul must be set "like a
lyra musically, not with high and low tones but with the knowledge of
moral opposites . . . not stretching it to excessive heights nor yet relaxing and loosening the harmony of virtues and things naturally
beautiful, but keeping it ever at a proper tension, striking it and
accompanying it on a stringed instrument in tune" (Quod Deus immutabilis sit 24).

The last, incidental phrase creates a concrete image of a performance practice: instrumental support of a vocal monody. A similar
situation is described, again incidentally, in Philo's report on his legation to Gaius (De legatione ad Gaium 42). He found the emperor so
"fascinated by the music of kithara and choral singers [that he] occa-

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sionally sang along." A comparable scene on a more elevated level

unfolds at the death of Moses. While he sings a thanksgiving hymn to
God, "with every kind of harmony and sweet consonance," angels
gather around him "as watchers, observing in accordance with their
own skill whether the song had any false note" and marveling "that
any man imprisoned in a corruptible body could like the sun and
moon and the most sacred choir of the other stars attune his soul to
harmony with God's instrument, the heaven and the whole universe"
(De virtutibus72-75).
At an earlier occasion, Moses had functioned as a choral conductor. After the defeat of the pursuing Egyptians at the Red Sea, "what
should Moses do but honor the Benefactor with hymns of thanksgiving? He divides the nation into two choirs, one of men, the other of
women, and himself leads the men while he appoints his sister to lead
the women that they might sing hymns to the Father and Creator in
agreeable tones, with a blending of tempers and melodies, eager to
render to each other like for like, combining into a consonance low
and high; for the tones of the men are low, high of the women, from
whom, when they are blended in due proportion, results the most
pleasant and panharmonic melos. All these myriads were persuaded
by Moses to sing with hearts together the same hymn . . . He himself
led off the song; his hearers massed in two choirs sang with him" (De
vita Mosis II, 256-57). His singing along while conducting assumes
allegorical significance. "Of the two choirs, male and female, standing
echoing and antiphonally, . . . the male choir shall have Moses for its
leader, that is Mind in perfection, and the female choir shall be led by
Miriam, that is Sense Perception made pure and clean. For it is right
to make music with both Mind and Sense" (De agricultura 79-80).
Philo's most valuable report on musical performance practices
derives, not from an interpretation of biblical passages, but from
personal observation of a sect of ascetics living near him in the vicinity
of Alexandria. Known as Therapeutae, they followed a pre-Christian
monastic discipline, already ancient at the time of Philo and Jesus.
Philo's long and detailed description of their practices leads up to the
musical climax of one of their festal meetings. After preliminary
prayers and after the president has made a long speech, "lingering
over it and spinning it out with repetitions, . . . universal applause
arises showing a general pleasure in the prospect of what is still to
follow. Then the president rises and sings a hymn composed as an
address to God, either a new one of his own composition or an old one
by poets of an earlier day who have left behind them hymns in many
meters and melodies . . . lyrics suitable for processions or in libations
and at the altars, or for the chorus whilst standing or dancing, with

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PHILO

ON MUSIC

careful metrical arrangements to fit the various turns and counterturns. After him others take over as they are arranged and in the
proper order while all the rest listen in complete silence except when
they have to chant the closing lines and closing sections [ephymnia],for
then they all, men and women, lift up their voices. When everybody
has finished his hymn, young men bring in the supper ... after which
they hold the sacred vigil conducted in the following way. They rise all
up together and standing in the middle of the refectory they first
form themselves into two choirs, one of men and one of women, the
leader and director chosen for each being the most honoured
amongst them and also the most musical. Then they sing hymns to
God composed of many meters and melodies, sometimes chanting
together, sometimes antiphonally, hands and feet keeping time in
accompaniment, and rapt with enthusiasm they execute now the music of the processional, now of the epodes (stdsima)and of the strophes
and antistrophes of the dances. Then when each choir has done its
part in the feast, having drunk as in the Bacchic rites of the strong
wine of God's love, they mix and both together become a single choir"
(De vita contemplativa64 ff.).
The description of the final music of the scene raises some questions. In classical Greek drama, four centuries before Philo, the chorus was governed by an established structure. One half of the entire
group made a poetical, musical statement, the strophe or turn. The
other half answered with a parallel counterstatement, the antistrophe
or counterturn. Then they joined for a crowning summation, the
epode or stand (stasimon).Did Philo list the closing stasimonbefore the
strophes to convey a sense of the "rapt enthusiasm" of the feast? Or
did his generation no longer pay much attention to the classical choric
behavior? Or did Philo merely mix what he remembered of the formal arrangement of a Greek drama with his clear view of the two
choirs organized by Moses at the Red Sea? Perhaps the Therapeutae
themselves had merged the two traditions, just as Philo throughout
his work had tried to reconcile Platonic thought and Old Testament
authority.
In his comprehensive study of Philo, Harry Austryn Wolfson
shows that the philosopher conceived of three definite laws of nature:
the law of opposites which states that all things in the world are
divided into two equal though opposite parts; the law of the harmony
of opposites which establishes an equilibrium; and the law of the
perpetuity of the species which wills that nature should run a course
that brings it back to its starting point.3 Musicians sensitized to the
3

332 ff.

Philo: Foundationsof Religious Philosophy(Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1947) I, pp.

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pervasive forces of polarity, harmony, and perpetuity readily accept

these laws as basic, yet the supportive and otherwise persuasive evidence supplied by Wolfson completely ignores music. The characteristic examples given in this paper confirm the view that Philo and his
contemporaries, unlike later generations, still recognized music as a
central spiritual force.
City Universityof New York

130

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