References

"Through Vibration comes Motion

Through Motion comes Color

Through Color comes Tone"

The Music of the Spheres: Music, Science, and the Natural Order of the Universe; by Jamie James; Springer Publishers, 1995

The Pythagorean Experience; The Arts and Sociobiology; [Robin Allott. 1994. Journal of Social and Evolutionary Systems., 1 71-90.]

The Music of Pythagoras: How an Ancient Brotherhood Cracked the Code of the Universe and Lit the Path from Antiquity to Oute; by Kitty Ferguson; Walker & Company (April 15, 2008)

Pythagoras: A Brief History of the Monochord; by Jeff Cotrell

The monochord consisted of a single string stretched over a sound box, with the strings held taut by pegs or weights on either end. It used a moveable bridge to change pitch, and was usually plucked. A later instrument of the same principle was played with a bow, called the "trumpet marine" (Adkins, New Grove). It was used as an instrument as early 300 BC by Euclid (Ripin, New Grove), and as a scientific instrument by Pythagoras as early as the 6th century BC No one knows when it first appeared, as its origins extend into prehistory.

The monochord's impact as a scientific instrument is possibly more profound than its musical importance. Pythagoras' study of ratios on the monochord led philosophers to believe that these ratios also governed the movement of planets and other cosmic matters (Ptolemy). This provided the bridge between the world of physical experience and numerical relationships, giving birth to mathematical physics. In addition, this elevated music to one of the highest intellectual pursuits. Furthermore, since the "perfection of sounds" could now be revealed by numbers, all simple numeric ratios could be visualized as sounds. Kepler's "harmony of the spheres" is based on this, as well as harmonically resounding architecture. If the visible proportions of a building can be expressed in numeric ratios, then their relationships can be "heard" as chords. Like the "golden section" of architecture, musical harmony "imposes order in the hearts and minds of men by virtue of their simple, natural relationships" (Harnoncourt). This also helped support the baroque idea that music was a reflection of the divine order (unless you were a minstrel, perhaps).

Pythagoras’ Dying Words:

Pythagoras is said to have taught that the universe is put together by means of harmonic laws and so produces, through the motion of the seven planets, rhythm and melody. The very enthusiastic Neo-Pythagorean Iamblichus went so far as to claim that Pythagoras could actually hear the cosmic music inaudible to other mortals. And since all discoveries about the Pythagorean cosmos were dependent on the numerical ratios sounded by a stretched string, or monochord, it was reported by the Neo-Platonic musical theorist Aristides Quintilianus that Pythagoras' dying injunction to his students was “work the monochord.”

Pythagorean Harmony of the Universe; Dictionary of the History of Ideas

PYTHAGOREAN HARMONY
OF THE UNIVERSE

In the course of summarizing Pythagorean contri-
butions to Greek thought, Aristotle, having pointed out
the importance of mathematics to the Pythagoreans,
adds that “since... they saw that the modifications
and the ratios of the musical scales (༁ρυονιῶν) were
expressible in numbers;—since, then, all other things
seemed in their whole nature to be modelled in
numbers, and numbers seemed to be the first things
in the whole of nature, they supposed the elements
of numbers to be the elements of all things, and the
whole heaven to be a scale and a number” (Meta-
physica A 5 986a, trans. W. D. Ross). Aristotle was
probably describing the views of fifth- and fourth-
century Pythagoreans such as Archytas of Tarentum,
under whom the doctrine of a universe ordered by the
same numerical proportions that govern musical
harmonies was developed.

JAMES PHILIP

Painting and Experience in 15^th Century Italy, woodcut

Intervals in the Greater Perfect System of the Greeks

Rudolf Wittkower, "Architectural Principles in the Age of Humanism" (1949)

The number series 4 : 6 : 8 : 9 :12 :16 is often associated with the greater perfect system of the Greeks and the theory of proportion. The intervals between members of this series are fifth, fourth, tone, fourth and fourth. These intervals give the tuning for the fixed intervals of the tetrachords of the greater perfect system.

Intervals of the Greater Perfect System
A	G	F	E	D	C	B	A	G	F	E	D	C	B	A
4	.	.	.	6	.	.	8	9	.	.	12	.	.	16

The proportions of the greater perfect system are illustrated on the frontispiece of Theorica Musice published in 1492 by the musical theorist Franchino Gafurio (1451 - 1522). The blacksmith's hammers, bells, glasses, weighted strings and pipes all bear the numbers 16, 12, 9, 8, 6 and 4.

On the Aeolian Harp.
Jones William, F.R.S.
"Physiological Disquisitions; or, Discourses On The Natural Philosophy Of The Elements"
London: Rivington ; London: Robinson ; Oxford: Prince ; Cambridge: Merrils ; Colchester: Keymer; 1781

It was observed above, that as action and re-action are equal, the effect is the same, whether the sonorous body strikes air, or the air strikes the sonorous body. In the case of a musical pipe this is plain enough: but it was not so well known, nor could it be so familiarly proved, till of late years, that the air can begin of itself to produce the effect, and fetch music out of a string, as a string fetches music out of the air.
We have now a curious illustration of this fact from the instrument called an Eolian harp. How far the ancients were masters of this experiment, is uncertain: but it has long been known, that the wind would bring musical sounds from the strings of an instrument. In the Jewish Talmud, where we should scarcely expect to find any thing valuable in philosophy, the wind is reported to have brought music out of the harp of David; which, as it is there said, "being every midnight constantly blown upon by the north wind, warbled of itself." (Talmud in Berae, fol.6.)

Esoteric Music Theory

Here are some good links related to esoteric music philosophy:
Kepler
Music, mathematics and philosophy
Pythagoras: The whole thing is a number
Greek Esoteric Music Theory Charts
The relativity of Musical Conceptions
The Magic of Tone and the Art of Music
The Quality of Vitality: Music by Harry Partch
Joscelyn Godwin's great 'Harmony of the Spheres' book
The Pythagorean Theory of Music and Color
The Life and Philosophy of Pythagoras
The Sonata of the Master Musician
Mysticism and Spiritual Harmonics in Eighteenth-Century England
Joscelyn Godwin- the top esoteric music author today
Notes on the Function of Music
UNIVERSAL HARMONY IN MUSIC COMPOSITION
Music and Number

Paul Klee

Painting Music Is NOT Synesthesia!

Museum of Modern Art, New York: Machine for Living Color

Colour Intervals: Applying Concepts of Musical Consonance and Dissonance to Colour; by Katherine Lubar

Rythmic Light; Fred Collopy