B13 Is music going to be banned now?
The discussion of religious symbols in classrooms is certainly going into a new round, after the author of these lines pointed out that the Western sound system does not have to be called Greek but Roman Catholic and that it refers to numerous biblical passages.
For this reason, music teachers are from now on in a dilemma: On the one hand, they have to respect the separation of church and state, on the other hand to convey cultural assets. As long as our sound system was assumed as Greek, we thought we were in an autonomous area where it was only necessary to devote all of our attention to the art of sound, but if teachers continue with it and ignore the new research results, they deprive their students of information
What is it about?
In Christian harmony the 1 stands for the prim and the 8 for the octave due to the eight blessings of the Sermon on the Mount. As the epitome of consonance they were equated with the A and the Ω. Before this could happen, the Early Christians subjected the sound system of the Greeks and Romans, whose idolatry they abhorred, to a thorough cleansing. They referred to the Old Testament, which speaks of the sanctification of the temple on the 1st and 8th days. This is how the translation of the Greek terms into the Latin language - that was about 1800 years ago - led to the introduction of new interval designations, after centuries before the pre-Christian Romans had been satisfied with the Greek terminology.
Now the diatonic was conceived as a seven-step ladder - hence the term "scale" - according to the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, for the goal of the believers was always to be in the presence of God, represented by the eight blissfulnesses. The number of eight church tones - carved in stone in the capitals of Cluny Abbey - speaks for itself. For this reason, baptisteries and baptismal fonts usually have an octagonal shape, because only through baptism is it possible to achieve bliss. Therefore, the imperial crown is octagonal, because the rulers were closer to blessedness by the grace of God, and octagonal pulpits refer to the divine presence of the Word, since we read: "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God." At this point, numerous other examples could be cited. The sonic syllables: Ut, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La, and Si are not coincidentally the opening syllables of John's hymn because John the Baptist had pointed to the coming of Christ.
Suddenly, it becomes clear how the hair-raising illogicality within our sound system came about, because even today the students are taught that 5 whole-tone steps and two semitones lead to the octave, whereas mathematics teaches that five whole and two half result in 6. Even Euclid had recognized that 6 whole-tone steps are a little bit larger than what we now call octave. But 6 are not bigger than 8! Only in this way are to explain the grotesque interval terms such as "minor second" and "major third", because the counting had to be maintained to reach the octave.
As a result, keyboards and keys are symbolically "contaminated". The 13 keys with only 12 tone names are intended to commemorate the 13 participants on the last supper minus Judas, the 5 black keys to the five wounds and the sacrificial death and the 8 white keys to salvation. The 13-1, the 5 and the 8 represent betrayal, death and salvation, the symbolic short version of the Gospel, and it is no accident that the C stands like Christ in the zenith of the circle of fifths according to the words of the Messiah: "I am the beginning and the The End". The musicians of the West work in an acoustic sacred space.
How should one still convey music as a loyal public servant (teacher) against this background - past the symbolism? At the same time we have not yet spoken of the ethical content of Western harmony. Then it would be about the Western Christian values. Worry may be justified that sponsors withdraw as soon as ideological interpretations come into play. In some places Western music might even be considered a provocation.