source file: mills2.txt Date: Wed, 16 Apr 1997 16:02:53 -0700 Subject: Re: Rudolf Steiner and Music From: David & Kathleen Seidel Bruce Kanzelmeyer wrote: > > Can anyone offer insight into the sources of Rudolf Steiner's ideas > concerning the significance of musical interval and human spiritual > development? The following quotes are from his book, "The Inner Nature of > Music and the Experience of Tone" (1983), An throposophic Press, Hudson, > NY. > > "If you could go back into the Atlantean age, you would find that the > music of that time " > > Anyone have any insight into the sources of this kind of thinking about music? > Steiner claimed to gain his knowledge directly from the "Akashic Record" -- i.e., to have direct knowledge of cosmic truth. Statements such as the one about Atlantis are basically equivalent to and as historically precise as contemporary "channelled communications." Steiner's roots were in the Theosophical movement of the 19th century; he eventually broke from the Theosophists to form his own school, Anthroposophy, a pastiche of Christianity, Northern European pre-Christian traditions, Goethean science, Zoroastrianism, and eastern esotericism. The motif of intervals and the octave as emblems of human experience are discussed in _In Search of the Miraculous_, by P.D. Ouspensky, and _Enneagram Studies_, by J.G. Bennett. While these writings are subsequent to Steiner's, they also derive from late nineteenth century esotericism, and from individuals who were as mysterious as Steiner regarding the sources of their information. Though I am not familiar with her writings, Helena Blavatsky's writings might be an interesting source to mine for more background. Kay Gardner discusses the psychological effects the various intervals in Sounding the Inner Landscape. Kathleen Seidel Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Thu, 17 Apr 1997 01:05 +0200 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA01667; Thu, 17 Apr 1997 01:05:55 +0200 Received: from ella.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA01665 Received: from by ella.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) id QAA28639; Wed, 16 Apr 1997 16:04:21 -0700 Date: Wed, 16 Apr 1997 16:04:21 -0700 Message-Id: Errors-To: madole@mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@ella.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@ella.mills.edu