Harmonies of Heaven and Earth: Mysticism in Music from Antiquity to the Avant-Garde

Harmonies of Heaven and Earth is an intriguing read if you are musically inclined and have a background knowledge of both music and medieval metaphysics. For the lay person it is a little more difficult to wade through. Still, a lay person can gain an appreciation for both music and speculative knowledge of its effects on matter through a perusal of this book.The author, Mr. Joscelyn Godwin, applies knowledge from folklore, and mysticism to the subject of music, introducing several themes including the linkage of music on matter, living things, and their behavior. He explores the affinity between music and the soul, and then he turns to medieval metaphysics, exploring the 'Chain of Being,' the birth place of music in higher realms of being and its descent to earth.In his final chapters he discusses the musical scale and its correlations to planets, utilizing medieval conceptions of cosmology and their notions of the 'spheres.' For me, the most compelling part of this book was it gave insight into the medieval worldview and its ideal of a unified conception of the universe; a conception that was first shattered by Copernicus, then Einstein and the quantum physicists. We still await the unified theory that the medievalists believed they held in their grasps.The downside of this book is there is little information on recent advances in science and the ways it would compel a re-conceptualization of music and its effects on matter. Instead, the reader wades through speculations on where Gurdjieff obtained his law of seven from, among other anecdotes that are not current science.Still if one is interested in alchemy, hermetic knowledge, and esoteric lore this will make a nice edition to the library.

This was a fun and informative read. The last section was dense with diagrams and theories that I will revisit as I learn more, so I mostly trudged through those—Fascinating, regardless.

Quite good. Very interesting! Especially the part about the harmony of the spheres.

This is an excellent book for those who are interested in the metaphysical, transcendent power of music! As a professional music therapist who sees the power that music has to facilitate changes within people on a daily basis,I highly recommend it!

An amazing book on music and spirituality. The harmonies of the spheres become clear through this book. One has to be very familiar with both music and spirituality to better extract all the knowledge within this book.

An enjoyable read on a fascinating topic.

A treasure trove of esoteric musical knowledge

Though this may seem an unnecessary addition to my review, Professor Joscelyn Godwin is a professor I have had/will have again at Colgate University, and a man of utmost scholarship. That said, this book suffers from one minor flaw, not worth removing a star: his archaic writing style. Godwin's ideas are intelligent, thought-provoking, and well-presented...but his writing style is the kind that can make the average reader's eyes glaze over. Of course, the "average reader" will not be reading this book, but a bit of accessibility stylistically never hurt anybody...then again, who am I to judge Professor Godwin? He was just grading my papers, hehe.Anyway, this book is brilliant. Vast amounts of information are thrown at the reader in a manageable and coherent fashion, and all the chapters follow a logical course of thought which supports the ultimate thesis that the universe we live in is a musical one, dominated by harmonies and melodies of untold beauty, not equations of mind-boggling complexity. His own 4 chapters are excellent forays into speculative music, presenting scientific evidence of the effects of music in the universe, as well as anecdotal/mythological excerpts to support the idea. At times, it seems as though fact and fiction are indistinct, and this would be an accurate view. But even Godwin himself notes this in Chapter 2. The ultimate relevance is that, whether fact or fiction, Godwin has touched upon some kind of truth (in my opinion), which his scientific evidence backs up, and his anecdotal/mythological evidence presents to us.The final section is the clearest description of complex musical philosophies I have yet found. Certainly the scales and tone-zodiacs (not to mention ideas) he presents are hard to decipher, but he explains them well in layman's terms, so even without a music degree, one can figure out the gist of what is going on. Godwin's own Harmony of the Spheres sourcebook includes much of this in even more detail, some more clear, some less, but this is a great quick guide to many confusing musical philosophies and concepts. Truly mind-blowing stuff if you ask me, especially the stuff on Kepler and the last several pages of the book...Ultimately, this book is a fantastic read, one that will make you question your existence, the realities you perceive, the nature of myth, and the power of music. Godwin opens minds...but try to get the 87 edition used, it has 2 passages he left out of the 95.5 Stars. Without Question.

exellent!

Ok, Im not going to get into all the details. But at a professional musician. This is stuff you cannot find anywhere else. Does not say he knows all, but gives many historical approaches to music and shows all. First half is easy reading taking a few notes, history of musical phenomonon across many cultures. Second half is intense hardcore, different approaches to the music and harmony of the spheres by many authors, also pythagorean mathimatical charts. Quite intense, not for someone who has no knowledge of basic music theory.