Music: in aesthetics, science, and "the spheres"

The Naked Saint was an interesting story about a saint that was only concerned with time and couldn’t enjoy anything else in his life. I believe that the moral of this story is to point out that music can change us and have a big impact on our lives as well as not being tied up with how much time we have. The impact that music had on the naked saint was life changing for him, he was no longer tied to the wheel of Time which made him crazy. The saint was angered when he saw others doing jobs that to him were worthless compared to the time that they had. Definitely a good story about how to relax and not get so worked up about how much time is left and to enjoy life and be productive in life.

I thought it was interesting when the saint saw the two lovers in the moonlight and heard the music because as I recall in Greek mythology love is a large part of all the myths and it was neat to see the music be tied in with all of that. Music can be very influential in life and the naked saint proved that when he changed into an angelic being. The Greeks believed that music was the most powerful out of all the arts. Music represented harmony in life and if someone’s life was crazy, like the naked saint’s, they must not have had any harmony in their lives. When the naked saint saw the beauty of the moonlight and the two lovers, he found harmony in this and was able to hear music and be at peace.

Music was studied as an art as well as a science in Greek culture. In the story of The Naked Saint, the saint was calmed and changed not only by the two lovers, but also the light of the moon in the sky. Pythagoras was an astronomer, mathematician, and a musician. He, as well as other philosophers believed that the “universal truths could be expressed in motion, in number, and in music” (Music in Greek Philosophy, 2). As the stars and planets rotated, they made heavenly music and humans were supposed to be responsive to the music that was being made. If there is harmony in the universe there is harmony among people, that is if people are willing to listen. The saint was not willing to listen to the music that was around him. He was too concerned with the wheel of Time and making sure it was still running. I think that the philosophers had a good theory in that people should be aware of their surroundings and no wrapped up in their own monotonous lives.