For a Via Pulchritudinis Musicalis. Some Notes for a Musical Spirituality

Abstract

To aim for the unspeakable divine, nothing beats the via pulchritudinis musicalis, the path of beauty advocated by Christian tradition, from Augustine to Luther and the recent popes, which contains parables to make the “unheard of” of the Spirit heard and to reconcile the disagreements between humans. The article deploys twelve metaphors of musical spirituality, as so many different sounds available to seekers of meaning, singers and musicians of the infinite, playing on the numbers: the sound of silence; the threetone Trinitarian chord; the seven notes of the divine scale; humanity and the believing community as a four-part choir; the five lines of the staff of existence; the righteousness (justice) of the six strings of the guitar; the transcendence of the Christ melody; the stereophony between heaven and earth; the novelty of the final biblical Maranatha; the two hands and ten fingers of the pianist; song and music for the spiritual journey and liturgy; the 144,000 voices of the hymns of Revelation. For nothing reaches the heart of God beyond words like perfect harmony when the final chord is sounded.