INTRODUCTION: SINGING, CONTEMPLATION

AND THE RENAISSANCE PHILOSOPHY

OF MUSIC

The human was originated in order to contemplate and imitate the cosmos; he is in
no way perfect, but is some part of the perfect.1

This book explores the ethics of music, which underlies the Reformation theology and practice of singing , with a focus on the classical notion of musica
humana.2 Readers may wonder what the ethics of music is about, because it is not
an area which plays any significant part in the existing curricula of musicological
and philosophical studies. While there have been numerous studies on the philosophy of music for the last several decades, our understanding of the ethics of
music is very limited.3 When considered from a philosophical perspective, music
is invariably of significance as a subject of aesthetics rather than that of ethics.4
Due to this lack of understanding of music as an ethical entity, it is necessary to
explain briefly what is meant by the ethics of music and in what context I use the
term in this book. First of all, by the ethics of music I mean the moral philosophy
of music which is at the core of the classical musical discourses revived by Renaissance humanists.5 More specifically, my interest lies in the Platonic humanist
tradition of moral philosophy which, I would argue, served as a major intellectual basis for developing the practice of singing as the contemplation, viz. an
intensive intellectual and spiritual exercise associated with the moral state of human
beings.6 In the light of Platonic musical thought retrieved by the humanists, this
book thus attempts to elucidate the ethics of music underlying the practice of
contemplative singing that played a vital role in shaping the morality and spirituality of the Reformation both individually and congregationally.

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Singing as Contemplation

While the ancient moral philosophy of music has received little attention from
modern scholars, it is of prime importance in relation to Renaissance musical
thought. The ancient ethical ideas of music were well known to the medieval
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scholars through Anicius M. Boethius (c. 480524), whose De Institutione

musica was the most influential textbook of music in Western Europe until
the nineteenth century.7 Generally, however, music was not a serious question
treated in relation to morality until the early modern period when the ancient
ethical ideas of music became the real driving force behind the theory and practice of the more enthusiastic class of humanist.8 As will be demonstrated by this
book, the notion of singing as contemplation was grounded in the ancient ethics
of music that lay at the heart of humanist musical reform, which kept abreast
with the moral reforms of both the Church and society.9 Inspired by the classical
writings on music, the humanists raise the fundamental questions as to music,
that is, what music is, what it is for, and why it is important not only on the
individual level but also on the societal. In his Apologia musices (1588), one of
the most brilliant Renaissance accounts of music, for example, John Case (d.
1600) discusses the place of music in both religious and civil life from an ethical
perspective under the following topics: the origin of music and its multi-faceted characteristics; why music is useful for every kind of life; whether the inner
forces and powers of the soul are more affected by vocal and instrumental music
than by the objects of the other senses; whether the theoretical and contemplative life stands more in need of the art of music than the active and practical life;
the wonderful and effective power of instrumental music in the contemplation
of things divine; and finally, the use of music in political life.10 Such an ethicallyoriented musical discourse may not be so congenial to the musical enterprises
and thoughts that are popular in our time; but modern readers are liable to interpret them through the lens of the aesthetics and norms that are dominant in our
contemporary secular culture rather than through the ideas of music that preoccupied the minds of Renaissance thinkers and theorists.
This inclination is true of how we generally understand singing , one of the
many ways of doing music. Among various musical activities, singing is often
seen as most basic and ordinary. Supposedly, everyone who has breath can sing,
if not excellently, without instructions on how to play the musical instrument
the body. By contrast, playing a musical instrument appears more demanding than singing ; making a melody, even producing a simple sound, can be a
daunting task for a novice and requires laborious practice of many years. On a
professional level, singing too requires much discipline just as other forms of
musical training, perhaps even more so, given the sensitivity of the body as a
musical instrument that is prone to changes in its physical surroundings and
emotional conditions more than any other musical instrument made from natural resources. In order to be a singer, first of all, one thus has to make ones body
a musical instrument, which cannot be purchased at a shop, unlike other musical instruments. In this regard, the human body as a musical instrument is the
most difficult and tricky to play, because a future singer does not even yet have
a musical instrument, even if the voice/body has great potentials as a musical

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Introduction

instrument. Generally, however, most people tend simply to sing without taking
seriously their bodies as musical instruments.
In philosophical terms, the human body was often regarded as a musical
instrument of the human soul, distinguished from the rest of musical instruments,
throughout the classical and medieval periods. Bruce W. Holsinger argues convincingly that medieval music was quintessentially a practice of the flesh; music
played a major imaginative and ideological role in medieval representations of the
human body.11 In this context, the practice of singing became an integral part of
the material cultures of the Middle Ages, although it was a significant factor in
meditation practices of some religious communities.12 As will be demonstrated
by the present book, however, for Renaissance humanists, singing was essentially
a spiritual and intellectual exercise that had significant moral consequences. The
spirituality of music, particularly the spiritual force of singing , was considered
to be crucial in educating the laity, as illustrated by the Reformation writings on
the contemplative nature of sacred songs used in both public worship and private devotion. The practice of singing engages the physicality of the human body;
what animates the body as a musical instrument of the soul is the spiritus, which
is of divine origin and connects the mortal body to the immortal soul. Thus by
singing the body is meant to be able to transcend corporeal pleasure or pain such
as sexual desire and physical torture. Thus, the social, philosophical and theological implications of singing in Renaissance humanism and the Reformation were
rather different from those of singing in the Middle Ages and in our time.
Most of all, Renaissance humanists often define music as the art of singing.
This definition of music itself is interesting, when compared to the modern general view of singing as a part of music rather than the whole of it. The famous
musical treatise of Sebald Heyden (14991561), De Arte Canendi (1540) begins
with this very definition of music.13 Likewise, Johannes Thomas Freig (154383)
refers to music as the art of singing well in his Paedagogus (1582), an introduction to various academic disciplines.14 According to the Renaissance educators,
musical sound is produced via three media: the human voice, wind instruments
(fistulae) and string instruments. The voice creates sound by moving the tongue,
wind instruments by blowing, and string instruments by striking. Supreme among
these are the human organs the larynx and uvula, and what is in them, and the
nose the natural instruments. Girolamo Mei (151994), an Italian humanist
who made a major contribution to the revival of ancient Greek music/drama, follows the classical arguments in the Problemata on the human voice, distinguished
from the voice of animals by its meaningful speech, capable of expressing the
souls motions and pressing them on the audience.15 The superiority of the human
voice over musical instruments is articulated in earlier musical treatises; but more
than any other time, in both theory and practice, the Renaissance was dominated
by music of the human voice the living musical instrument.

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Although instrumental music was popular on various occasions, the humanists treated it with great care, especially in relation to church music. They were
often critical of the existing practice of church music heavily laden as it was with
polyphony and instrumental music. On what basis did the humanists develop such
polemics against instrumental music used in the churches? The Bible the norm
for the humanistic theologizing has no indication of this antagonism towards
musical instruments.16 In the Old Testament, 1 Chronicles 16:46; 16:3742;
and 28:19 describe temple worship accompanied by instrumental music, which
are the most frequently quoted biblical passages in modern apologetics for the
use of music instruments in Christian worship. The New Testament has no direct
statement against instrumental music, although it is generally assumed that
primitive Christianity did not admit the use of musical instruments.17 The most
vehement criticism of instrumental music in the Christian tradition is found in
patristic writings, and the church fathers were indeed one in this regard.18
The negative views of the church fathers on musical instruments served as a
major source for the humanist polemic against instrumental music used in the
Church. Notably, Jerome (c. 347420) advises Roman Christian parents that
a well-educated Christian girl should be deaf to the musical instruments, even
the lyre, and should not know for what purpose they are made.19 Following his
favourite father Jerome, Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam (14661536) makes
the same point in his polemics against existing practice of instrumental music
and dance the frenetic and noisy musical sound to which young girls dance;
Erasmus laments that his contemporaries do not see any moral danger in this
custom.20 This patristic and humanist polemics against instrumental music is
fundamentally ethical. Closely associated with instrumental music is dance, an
art which has been absent in the traditional liturgies of Christianity. But their
ethical approach to church music practice is not, in essence, Christian. As will be
discussed, the underlying ethics is rooted in the ancient theology (prisca theologia) which culminated in Plato and his successors and of which Christianity is a
continuation, alongside Judaism and Islam.21
Platonic metaphysics and ethics became a major intellectual basis for socalled spiritual rationalism pursued by the pagan philosophers and the church
fathers alike, and later by their early-modern successors. Spiritual rationalism may
sound unfamiliar to modern readers; in current philosophical studies, spirituality and rationality are often seen as at odds, under the premise that spirituality,
along with religion, is essentially irrational. In the context of such a discourse,
spirituality is primarily associated with feelings and emotions, whereas rationality goes with intellect and reason. This separation of spirituality and rationality
in the modern academic discourse hinders our understanding of the ancient and
early modern thought on religion and music (especially singing ), the ideas of
which were framed by the integration of emotion and reason in balance. From

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Introduction

the Platonic and humanist perspectives, music is fundamentally an ethical entity,

for it is essentially mathematical and poetical, engaging in both spirituality and
rationality. Thus in the Platonic tradition spiritualism (or what may be called
mysticism) is not divorced from rationalism. Rather, the two were intertwined to
serve an ultimate ethical goal, that is, virtue, or moral excellence. Likewise, as will
be argued, for the humanists committed to the reform of the Church and society,
such spiritual rationalism was the quintessence of their endeavours for the restoration of the dignity of the human as a moral being, created in the image of God.
To what extent and in what manner did Platonism impact on the musical
thought and practice of Renaissance humanism?22 It had been believed for many
decades that the Renaissance was an age of Plato, whilst the Middle Ages had
been an age of Aristotle. With regard to this polarity, Paul O. Kristeller asserts
that Renaissance Platonism which many historians have been inclined to oppose
to medieval Aristotelianism was not as persistently anti-Aristotelian as we might
expect.23 More recent studies have effectively demonstrated the diversity within
the humanist movement in terms of philosophical, political and religious ideas.24
In so far as the humanist interest in music is concerned, though, persistent in the
Renaissance humanist philosophy is the Platonic musical tradition that centres
on the integral relationship between music, morality and spirituality, coupled
with a polemics against instrumental music, especially percussion. Aristotelianminded humanists too view music as fundamentally ethical, but they did not
reject instrumental music to the extent that the Platonists did. Rather, as will be
discussed, they defend eloquently the place of instrumental music in religious and
civil life, arguing that music originates from God, and music both vocal and
instrumental is necessary for the contemplation of God, since it is a most divine
science of the mind, under the belief that the mind is more thoroughly stirred up
by the impulse of voices and instruments than by the objects of other senses.25
It was thus Platonists within the humanist circles who cultivated most vigorously the art of singing as a way of the contemplation which was directed toward
the divine knowledge and mystery, with supreme ethical goals. The Platonic
practice of contemplative singing was grounded in a serious academic enquiry
into the relationships between the human body, soul and spirit an enquiry
which eventually led to a fundamental shift of perspective on the question of
music-ethos. The founder and leader of the Platonic academy in Florence, Marsilio Ficino (143399) is a precursor in reviving this practice of singing as the
souls contemplation.26 The Platonic doctrine of soul had a profound impact on
all subsequent philosophers and theologians including Ficino. By giving the soul
a central place in his Theologia Platonica, Ficino argues that the souls contemplation of the divine (contemplatio divinorum) is uniquely human, compared to
other creatures.27 For Ficino, as for the ancient Platonists, the practice of singing
is an activity which harmonizes the body with the soul, viz. musica humana,

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through the physical sensation and two media, the spirit and the air. In more
Christian terms, though fundamentally Platonic, Erasmus stresses the ultimate
goal of singing as prayer and as spiritual sacrifice to lead the confessors to the
immortality of the soul.
This Platonic philosophy and theology of music that views the practice of singing as contemplation influenced profoundly the so-called Christian humanists,
many of whom turned into the major Reformers and contributed to the reform of
church music.28 Seldom, however, do the existing studies of Reformation musical
history discuss the philosophical and theological basis for the reforming programmes of sacred music. This is fundamentally because of the gap between the
early modern and our time in understanding the relationship between music and
languages. For the Christian humanists and reformers, as for the ancient philosophers (notably for the Platonists), music is inseparable from languages in a serious
sense, and it is thus an integral part of rhetoric, grammar, poetry, moral philosophy and religious rituals. The rationality and spirituality of music governed by
reason (ratio) underlying sound is more important than the physicality of music.
The musical ratio, in the best form, is manifested in the basic, regulated rhythmic
structure of verse metres. By contrast, within the context of modern academia
that is so fragmented and compartmentalized in the name of specialisms, music
and languages are two different entities, if related in some way.
In his famous book on music, for instance, Daniel J. Levitin attempts a neuropsychological investigation of sound and music in relation to the brain, mind
and thought.29 Levitins approach is typical of contemporary scientific studies of
music which discuss music in terms of sound and acoustics, without considering linguistic aspects of music (or musical aspects of languages) that are central
to the ancient and Renaissance discourse on music.30 Such a modern scientific
study of music has its own merits, but it is not always helpful for studying the
musical tradition of antiquity and the Renaissance, particularly the practices of
liturgical chants or songs built on the union of music and languages. Rather,
it can be an obstacle to our understanding of the ancient musical traditions in
which the human voice conveying both tones and words played a central role.
More significantly, it was words which had top priority in the ancient musical traditions, because languages, in the classical context of rhetoric, grammar
and poetry, were quintessentially musical properties, as evidenced by the highly
sophisticated accentuation systems of the ancient languages. Accentuations in
the three classical languages Greek, Latin and Hebrew influenced heavily the
humanist rhetoric and poetry of which music was integral part, with significant
ethical objectives.31 An excellent example to illustrate such comprehensive aspect
and effects of music linked inextricably to languages is the practice of metrical
psalmody established by the humanists and the reformers. As will be discussed
later, the Platonic-humanist ideas of music underlying the Reformation practice

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Introduction

of singing developed within a holistic framework of learning, moral philosophy

and religious culture that centred on intellectual, moral and spiritual cultivation
in both private and public life. In the following section, we shall consider the
place Renaissance humanism occupies in the history of music and its relevance
to Reformation musical history in broader terms.32

The Renaissance Philosophy of Music: The Platonic-Humanist

Approach
Renaissance humanism is not a major research topic in musicological studies,
although its importance has already been addressed by distinguished scholars in
the field such as Paul O. Kristeller in the mid-twentieth century.33 This is not to
say that existing musicologists are unaware of the impact that the ancient learning, rediscovered by humanist scholarship, had on musical theory and practice.
Some scholars have attempted to explain the way the Renaissance composers
and musicians used the remnants of ancient musical theory and practice at their
disposal. As noted generally, Renaissance music as a whole was conceived, written and performed under the inspiration of musical antiquity.
Regarding this impact of the ancient musical theory and practice on the
Renaissance, existing studies have primarily focused on acoustic or linguistic
issues. Claude V. Palisca, a leading musicologist, for instance, envisages fundamental changes in music theory in the Renaissance as follows: 1) the octave species
and modes; 2) the definition of consonance and dissonance; and 3) the theoretical basis for practical tuning.34 Highlighting the humanist preoccupation with
the study of Greek and Latin, Don Harrn stresses the relevance of rhetoric and
poetry to music and its influence on modern musical styles.35 Although their studies have discussed music in relation to some aspects of Renaissance humanism,
they are mainly concerned with technical issues of music rather than with philosophical ones in understanding music as an aural art, verbal or non-verbal. Besides,
music historians, who are interested in humanism, have mainly focused on secular
music, based on the traditional Burckhardtian interpretation of the Renaissance,
which views humanism as a new philosophy of the Renaissance that is essentially
secular in culture and spirit.36 Since modern discourse on (Renaissance) humanism is associated with secularism, few studies have thus considered sacred music
in the light of the humanism. As I have demonstrated elsewhere, however, Renaissance humanism influenced directly the existing practice of sacred music, which
is most evident in the liturgical chant practices of the Reformation in both Latin
and vernacular languages. An understanding of Renaissance humanism is therefore essential for studying the early-modern reforms of sacred music.37
In order to explain this further, let us consider Paul O. Kristellers interpretation which has been most influential for the last half century. More recent studies

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have often criticized Kristellers definition of the humanism as a narrowly philological enterprise.38 Still, Kristellers approach is helpful for observing wider
impacts of humanism on music not only in terms of musical forms and styles
but also in terms of the classical ideas underlying them. According to Kristeller,
although Renaissance humanism had important philosophical implications and
consequences, it was not a philosophy but a cultural and educational movement;
it pursued the improvement of society by reasserting the value of the studia
humanitatis, a cluster of five subjects grammar, rhetoric, history, poetry and
moral philosophy.39 Kristeller thus stresses the multi-faceted characteristic of the
religious, philosophical, and political ideas of the humanists, that is, no single
idea dominated the movement, and he claims:
Renaissance humanism as a whole cannot be identified with a particular set of
opinions or convictions, but is rather characterised by a cultural ideal and a range
of scholarly, literary, and intellectual interests that the individual humanist was able
to combine with a variety of professional, philosophical, or theological conviction.40

Most important of all, Renaissance humanism, argues Kristeller, was essentially

a rhetorical movement, concerned the promotion of eloquence in its various
forms.41 As Alister E. McGrath put it succinctly, the core of Kristellers definition thus lies in the fact that the diversity of ideas which is so characteristic
of Renaissance humanism is based upon a general consensus concerning how to
derive and express those ideas.42
Kristellers claims have been illustrated by numerous studies that examine the
rhetorical characteristics of the Reformation, Protestant or Catholic, in terms
of the ways in which the reformers propagated and promoted their new religious ideas. This is evident not only in relation to sacred oratory preaching
but also in relation to sacred music, both of which relied heavily on the rules of
classical rhetoric for the sake of the intelligibility of text in the revised liturgicomusical performance. Kristellers philological approach enables us to recognize
the common intellectual method which centred on rhetoric and was thoroughly
used by the humanists regardless of their theological, political and philosophical inclinations. But nonetheless it tends to diminish the roles of the humanism
and humanists as the main vehicle of the ancient philosophical traditions. The
humanists were not just as translators of the ancient literatures. They functioned
as interpreters of the classical ideas they encountered and studied. It was their
perceptions and interpretations through which remote musical antiquity was
vivified and served as the models for new musical forms, techniques and terminologies in the early modern period. A cappella, metrical psalmody, monody,
oratorios, operas, etc. emerged under this inspiration of the ancient theory and
practice of music, in which music was an integral part of education, literature,
spirituality and religion, with a strong moral emphasis.

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Introduction

This philosophical and ethical aspect of music, which appealed profoundly

to Renaissance humanists, has not received the attention it deserves. It is, therefore, my intention to consider the philosophical significance of Renaissance
humanism in the history of musical thought above all. But this consideration
does not proceed from the traditional interpretation of humanism as the secular
philosophy of the Renaissance. Rather, my chief interest lies in humanism as
the moral philosophy of the Renaissance which is inseparable from the current
religious and musical concerns. Through examination of the humanists contribution to the development of musical ethics, I shall observe the way in which
humanist moralism led to a fundamental shift of perspective on the question
of word-tone relationships which lay at the core of studies of Western musical
theory and practice. My primary focus is on the Platonic-humanist musical discourse in which the ancient ethics of music is most intensely presented in terms
of the harmonia (harmony) and decorum (the appropriateness of emotions). I
demonstrate that the ideal of Platonic-humanist moralism were thoroughly
applied to contemporary musical practice, especially to the new musical enterprises of the Reformation. Furthermore, I argue that the ideal of temperance
(temperantia) became of prime importance in relation to humanist musical
education and reform of church music and, more decisively, to their polemics
against instrumental music and musicians.43

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Objectives and Structure

Since the Reformation as a whole is often seen as one of the major forces behind
the destruction of medieval sources of sacred music, musicologists are generally not so sympathetic to the musical ideas of the Reformation.44 It is, however,
undeniable that the ideas which resulted in the loss of older musical sources
paved the way for new musical life in Western Europe in both intellectual and
spiritual terms. What are these ideas and on what basis were they applied to the
practice of sacred music by the course of the Reformation? One may find some
answer to these questions in existing studies of Reformation musical history that
have examined the musical ideas of the mainstream reformers like Martin Luther
(14831546) and John Calvin (150964). Although these studies scrutinize
the reforms of liturgy and liturgical music, they have hardly called into question
issues surrounding the concepts of music associated with the musical practice
of the Reformation. I have therefore explored some of the ideas of music that
are well known but taken for granted or hardly considered of any significance
by existing studies of music. One of the chief components of the ideas I have
attempted to interpret is musica humana, which is a phrase only mentioned in
passing at music history classes and is the most ambiguous among the three categories of music discussed by the ancient philosophers.

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The Renaissance Ethics of Music: Singing, Contemplation and Musica Humana

The principal aim of this book is thus to elucidate the notion of musica
humana, which lies at the heart of the classical and Renaissance ethics of music
and yet is hitherto left unexplained. In the light of Renaissance humanism and
Platonism, this book examines the way in which musica humana was interpreted
and practised by key early-modern thinkers and theorists of religion, education,
and music.45 In doing so it highlights the socio-ethical capacity of music/singing
to embody the union of divinity and humanity within the context of Renaissance and Reformation thought. My chief argument is that the musica humana,
whose ultimate goal lies in moderation, or temperance (temperantia), did not
serve just as a literary metaphor but was embodied in the Platonic-humanist
practice of poetic music, especially in the Reformation practice of congregational psalmody. More specifically, I demonstrate that the Platonic ideal of
music as the contemplation of the divine, reclaimed by Ficino and disseminated
by Franchinus Gaffurius, underlay the Erasmian theology of music that was
practised by the Reformed theologians, notably by John Calvin and Huldrich
Zwingli. Although they have different views over religious and doctrinal matters, they are one in the pursuit of musica humana.
In the introduction thus far I have explained what is meant by the Renaissance ethics of music and its fundamental significance in relation to the revival
of musica humana in the Reformation spirituality and theology of music which
was embodied in the practice of congregational singing. As a starting point to
explore the philosophical backdrops to this revival of musica humana in the
early modern period, Chapter 1 attempts to interpret a classical notion of music,
musica humana (the harmony of body and soul), as discussed by Boethius. It
explains the three categories of music (musica mundana; musica humana; and
musica instrumentalis constituta) in relation to the practice of contemplative
singing advocated by the Platonic humanists in the pursuit of the spiritual
rationalism. It discusses the integral relationship between the cosmos, the human
body, and the soul the relationship which is vital for understanding Renaissance Platonic humanist discourse on music and musicians that underlies the
Reformation theology of music and singing.
Chapter 2 focusses on the medical and theurgic use of music in the Pythagorean-Platonic traditions retrieved by the leading figures of Renaissance
Neo-Platonism, notably by Marsilio Ficino. It begins by discussing the use of
music for the purification of the soul in the Pythagorean tradition of musical
healing, in terms of the Platonic cosmology and its ethical dimensions. With an
emphasis on the ancient medical theory of the human body, humourism, this
chapter examines Ficinos understanding of the relationship between music and
the spiritus which is regarded as the bond of body and soul, and it explains the
function of singing as a spiritual medium in the pursuit of musica humana.

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11

Chapter 3 will discuss the ancient discourse on the ties between music,
morality and education, in the light of the Platonic attitude to music, an
approach which directly influenced the Renaissance reform of education, liturgy
and music. It observes the Platonic humanist approach to music in relation to
temperance and then moves on to discuss the role of the musician as a pedagogus
in Quintilian terms. A particular focus is on the Dorian mode, whose ethical
implications and values are most highly appreciated by the classical and Renaissance scholars alike. Many of musical compositions discussed in the light of the
Platonic ethics of music and the Dorian are illustrated from the English musical
practices including Thomas Talliss and Thomas Campions, which reflect most
strongly the Platonic humanist approach to music and poetry.46
Chapter 4 attempts to define the notion of divine music (musica divina)
within the context of the Platonic-humanist theology which characterizes the
musical ideas of Ficino, Erasmus and Gaffurius. Highlighting the distinction
between the Apollonian music and the Dionysian music made by Erasmus, it
observes the way in which the Pythagorean-Platonic ideal of music was adopted
by the ancient Christian thinkers and later by the humanist reformers for redefining the practice of sacred music and, moreover, elucidates why they banned
the use of instrumental and polyphonic music in the worship, in terms of the
Renaissance Platonic notion of God.
Chapter 5 will deal with the practices of singing and silence which Reformed
theologians identify as contemplative prayer and spiritual sacrifice.47 It argues
that this identification of singing and silence as prayer and sacrifice, which is
so characteristic of the Reformed theology of music, takes its root in the NeoPlatonic notion of philosophical prayer. The chapter elucidates how this
Neo-Platonic view of music, mediated through the patristic and Renaissance
humanist scholars whose musical ideas echo the Neo-Platonic ideas, was adopted
by the Reformed theologians including Calvin and Zwingli.
Chapter 6 seeks to reinterpret the Reformation practice of psalmody in
the light of the patristic understanding of the Psalms as a Christian embodiment of musica humana. It explains the ethical meanings of psallere and moves
on to expound the link between the Platonic musical tradition (that is, choric
songs) and Christian psalmody in terms of the modulated recitation (modulata recitatio), the ancient manner of chanting or singing stressed by Erasmus.
It demonstrates that this platonically-inspired metrical psalmody was adopted
by the reformers in the pursuit of musica humana. It then concludes that the
Reformation practice of congregational singing was not merely a move from the
florid polyphony to more simplistic musical forms. Rather, it is based on a fundamental change in understanding both humanity and music, with a profound
ethical goal pursued as essential for enhancing the spirituality of the Church on
both individual and congregational levels.

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The Renaissance Ethics of Music: Singing, Contemplation and Musica Humana

Although this book is mainly focused on the ideas that underlie the Christian practice of singing in the early modern period, the themes in question are
equally important for studying some of the key factors of sacred music in a
broader sense. From my own studies of music as part of cultural-religious and
intellectual traditions, most musical forms in the non-Western traditions which
are categorized as sacred or religious music share roughly the same goal as musica
humana. Music, after all, is one of the most universal experiences of human life
an art which expresses the emotions and thoughts of individuals and communities across the civilizations.
I hope that this book will clarify some of the key ideas of music that are
of importance for retrieving the universal all-embracing capacity of music from
its own false bid for autonomy, particularly the relationship between music,
religion and education, an interdisciplinary relationship which was taken very
seriously by the religious thinkers and music theorists of early modern Europe.
Last but not the least, this book has not been written for the specialists of early
modern music exclusively. It is my wish to share the ideas of music, classical or
early modern, with those who appreciate the importance of music as an integral
part of intellectual and spiritual disciplines or exercises.

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