Glossary entry for
music of the spheres
The concept of the "Music of the Spheres" dates back at least to the 16th
century, and is a central idea in the Elizabethan world picture:
"The idea that the universe is bound together by harmony or concord is
fundamental in Elizabethan cosmology. The music of the spheres orders the
heavens, and music alike orders and tempers human passions and social
forces." (The Norton Anthology of English Literature, vol 1., p.1049)
This phrase and the idea behind it figures prominently in Sir John Davies'
"Orchestra, or A Poem of Dancing" from 1596:
"The poet recounts how one night when Penelope (Ulysses' Queen) at Ithaca
appeared among her suitors, Athena inspires her with special beauty.
Antonius, most courtly of the suitors, begs her to dance or in his own
words to
Imitate heaven, whose beauties excellent
Are in continual motion day and night.
Penelope refuses to join in something that is mere disorder or misrule, and
there follows a debate between the two on the subject of dancing. Antonius
maintaining that as the universe itself is one great dance comprising many
lesser dances we should ourselves join in the cosmic harmony. It was
creative love that first persuaded the warring atoms to move in order. Time
and all its division are a dance. The stars have their own dance, the
greatest being that of the Great Year, which lasts 25,800 years of
the sun. The sun courts the earth in a dance. The different elements have
their different measures. The various happenings on the earth itself
Forward and backward rapt and whirled are
According to the music of the spheres.
[...]
...it stands [...] for something central to Elizabethan ways of thinking:
the agile transformation from abstract to concrete, from ideal to real,
from sacred to profane. And the reason is the one given before for similar
catholicity: the Elizabethans were conscious simultaneously and to an
uncommon degree of 'the erected wit and the infected will of man'. It was
thus possible for Davies to pass from the mystical notion of the spherical
music to the concrete picture of Elizabeth's courtiers dancing, without
incongruity."
(E.M.W. Tillyard, The Elizabethan World Picture, Pelican 1943, pp. 112-114)
To relate this back to Van: His world picture seems to me remarkably
similar in its ability to incorporate the opposites (say Jellyroll and
Spiritual Healing) in one song, one performance, one breath. He certainly
has many references to the powers of music and dance, and I think he
would gladly agree to the feeling that 'the universe itself is one great
dance...'
It is possible that Van never read the Elizabethan poets, and that he came
to this philosophy via other routes (f. ex. some of the New Age/therapy
ways of thinking, that themselves are not original but derivates of Western
philosophy and Eastern religion and mysticism), but clearly there are some
correspondences here in the lyrics to "Dweller", for instance the phrases
"I'll sing the song of ages", "I'm gonna turn and face the music, the music
of the spheres", etc.
Contributed by B. Sorensen
Van references in:
Part of the van-the-man.info unofficial website
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