Zugl.: Berlin, Freie Univ., Diss., 2007

abstract: Three Meditations on the Philosophy of Boethius is a musical piece for guitar, piano interior, and computer. Each of the three movements, or meditations, reflects one level of music according to the medieval philosopher Boethius: Musica Mundana, Musica Humana, and Musica Instrumentalis. From spatial aspects, through the human element, to letting sound evolve freely, different movements revolve around different sounds and sound producing techniques. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.M. Music 2013

Boethius, a late Roman philosopher, composed his last work, De Consolatione Philosophiae, while in prison. His final effort crowned a lifetime of philosophical achievement, and the work was influential throughout the Middle Ages. Frequently translated, the Consolation was one of the books which was chosen by Alfred, a ninth century Anglo-Saxon king, for use in the rebuilding of his kingdom after the Danish invasions. Although intended for an audience which was heavily influenced by a lively pagan tradition, the book was re-interpreted during the Carolingian period to conform to a strict Christian standard. Alfred's own interpretation is indicative of this amalgamation of ancient learning in the milieu of an emerging European culture, as well as his own pragmatic personality.

While this analysis of the Old, Middle, and Early Modern English translations of De Consolatione Philosophiandamp;aelig; provides a brief reception history and an overview of the critical tradition surrounding each version, its focus is upon how these renderings present particular moments that offer the consolation of eternity, especially since such passages typify the work as a whole. For Boethius, confused and conflicting views on fame, fortune, happiness, good and evil, fate, free will, necessity, foreknowledge, and providence are only capable of clarity and resolution to the degree that one attains to knowledge of the divine mind and especially to knowledge like that of the divine mind, which alone possesses a perfectly eternal perspective. Thus, as it draws upon such fundamentally Boethian passages on the eternal Prime Mover, this study demonstrates how the translators have negotiated linguistic, literary, cultural, religious, and political expectations and forces as they have presented their own particular versions of the Boethian vision of eternity. Even though the text has been understood, accepted, and appropriated in such divergent ways over the centuries, the Boethian vision of eternity has held his Consolations arguments together and undergirded all of its most pivotal positions, without disturbing or compromising the philosophical, secular, academic, or religious approaches to the work, as readers from across the ideological, theological, doctrinal, and political spectra have appreciated and endorsed the nature and the implications of divine eternity. It is the consolation of eternity that has been cast so consistently and so faithfully into Old, Middle, and Early Modern English, regardless of form and irrespective of situation or background. For whether in prose and verse, all-prose, or all-verse, and whether by a Catholic, a Protestant, a king, a queen, an author, or a scholar, each translation has presented the texts central narrative: as Boethius the character is educated by the figure of Lady Philosophy, his eyes are turned away from the earth and into the heavens, moving him and his mind from confusion to clarity, from forgetfulness to remembrance, from reason to intelligence, and thus from time to eternity.

In Geoffrey Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde, the main character Troilus depicts the overt and covert ideology of Boethius's The Consolation of Philosophy. Clearly, Troilus meets with the Boethian question of free will, views it from the perspective of a Boethian universe, and closes with Boethius's suggestion to serve God. Less apparently, Troilus shows that in order to discern the ultimate Boethian position on free will, the conflict between reason and passion must also be resolved. Because he succumbs to passion and loses his ability to reason, Troilus appears illogical and negative when he discusses free will. In heaven, though, Troilus experiences the ultimate Boethian state and acclaims the final Boethian pronouncement that results from the resolution of not only the free will-necessity question but also the reason passion issue. Perceiving his situation intuitively and thus circumventing the deductive process, Troilus rejects a life given to following "blynde lust" and commends one dedicated to God. In doing so, he illustrates both the apparent and the obscure of Boethian philosophy.

This dissertation examines the nature and influence of the structural complexity of Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy on Dante’s Commedia, arguing that the latter is a deliberate response to the former. The General Introduction sets the groundwork through a survey of the major scholarship on Dante and Boethius; the genre of the Consolation as understood through the modern, but inadequate, category of Menippean satire and through accessus ad auctores in the medieval commentary tradition on Boethius and related authors; and the conception of intertextuality used in the study, which is connected to both the practice of allegory and Boethius’ understanding of metaphysics. Chapter One examines the Consolation, beginning with the presentation and roles of its two major characters, Boethius and Philosophy. Anchoring the more abstract discussion of the Consolation’s structure and its scholarly interpretations is the subsequent analysis of three main themes, time, love, and prayer. Chapter Two considers five twelfth-century prosimetra and their intertextual relationships with the Consolation in order to map authorial strategies of imitation: Bernard Silvestris’ Cosmographia; Alan of Lille’s Plaint of Nature; Hildebert of Lavardin’s Liber de querimonia; Adelard of Bath’s De eodem et diverso; and Lawrence of Durham’s Consolatio de morte amici. Each work is examined for its Boethian elements and structural complexity; the most original, the Cosmographia, is considered at greatest length. This provides an overview of common interpretive and imitative options for the Consolation. Chapter Three examines the Boethian elements of Dante’s Vita Nuova and the Convivio before engaging with the Commedia in order to take issue with the prevailing scholarly opinion that the Commedia can be understood as a rejecton of Dante’s Boethian stage as symbolized by the Convivio. Through a thorough examination of the many ways the Consolation is an intertext in the Commedia, this chapter argues that the Commedia is deeply responsive to the challenges of the Consolation both philosophically and artistically, and, in fact, is positioned by Dante so as to supersede and typologically fulfill the Consolation. In conclusion, therefore, Boethius’ work is demonstrated to be integral to a proper understanding of Dante’s purpose in the Commedia.

<p>Since the Renaissance, the normative approach to a philosophy of music has concerned itself primarily with the subjective experience of the listener. This was not always the case. From Greek Antiquity to the Renaissance, music was considered a rigorous, mathematical discipline that shed light on objective truths concerning cosmology and cosmogony. <i>Musica theorica</i>, therefore, took precedence over musica practica and was taken much more seiously in musical scholarship. Although tension had always existed between <i>Musica theorica</i> and <i>Musica practica</i>, such tension reached its peak during the Renaissance and as a result, a shift occurred: <i>Musica theorica</i> was pushed into the background, and <i>Musica practica</i> stepped forward.</p><p>The intention of this thesis is to convince its reader of the need to bring <i>Musica theorica</i> back to its proper place in musical and philosphical scholarship, where objective answers can be found, and music's innate eternal nature is revealed. The thesis begins with a historical survey of musical scholarship that eventually brings the reader to the center of the controversy that ensued during the Renaissance, and then forward to present day discussions in philosphy of music that are concerned with music's subjective and temporal properties. It is hoped that the reader will see the need for a new shift to occur in philosophy of music that focuses on music's objective and eternal properies (that are wholly distinct from the subject experiencing it), and will come away with a new perspective regarding the interdisciplinary nature of philosphy and music.

This dissertation examines the nature and influence of the structural complexity of Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy on Dante’s Commedia, arguing that the latter is a deliberate response to the former. The General Introduction sets the groundwork through a survey of the major scholarship on Dante and Boethius; the genre of the Consolation as understood through the modern, but inadequate, category of Menippean satire and through accessus ad auctores in the medieval commentary tradition on Boethius and related authors; and the conception of intertextuality used in the study, which is connected to both the practice of allegory and Boethius’ understanding of metaphysics. Chapter One examines the Consolation, beginning with the presentation and roles of its two major characters, Boethius and Philosophy. Anchoring the more abstract discussion of the Consolation’s structure and its scholarly interpretations is the subsequent analysis of three main themes, time, love, and prayer. Chapter Two considers five twelfth-century prosimetra and their intertextual relationships with the Consolation in order to map authorial strategies of imitation: Bernard Silvestris’ Cosmographia; Alan of Lille’s Plaint of Nature; Hildebert of Lavardin’s Liber de querimonia; Adelard of Bath’s De eodem et diverso; and Lawrence of Durham’s Consolatio de morte amici. Each work is examined for its Boethian elements and structural complexity; the most original, the Cosmographia, is considered at greatest length. This provides an overview of common interpretive and imitative options for the Consolation. Chapter Three examines the Boethian elements of Dante’s Vita Nuova and the Convivio before engaging with the Commedia in order to take issue with the prevailing scholarly opinion that the Commedia can be understood as a rejecton of Dante’s Boethian stage as symbolized by the Convivio. Through a thorough examination of the many ways the Consolation is an intertext in the Commedia, this chapter argues that the Commedia is deeply responsive to the challenges of the Consolation both philosophically and artistically, and, in fact, is positioned by Dante so as to supersede and typologically fulfill the Consolation. In conclusion, therefore, Boethius’ work is demonstrated to be integral to a proper understanding of Dante’s purpose in the Commedia.

<p>Since the Renaissance, the normative approach to a philosophy of music has concerned itself primarily with the subjective experience of the listener. This was not always the case. From Greek Antiquity to the Renaissance, music was considered a rigorous, mathematical discipline that shed light on objective truths concerning cosmology and cosmogony. <i>Musica theorica</i>, therefore, took precedence over musica practica and was taken much more seiously in musical scholarship. Although tension had always existed between <i>Musica theorica</i> and <i>Musica practica</i>, such tension reached its peak during the Renaissance and as a result, a shift occurred: <i>Musica theorica</i> was pushed into the background, and <i>Musica practica</i> stepped forward.</p><p>The intention of this thesis is to convince its reader of the need to bring <i>Musica theorica</i> back to its proper place in musical and philosphical scholarship, where objective answers can be found, and music's innate eternal nature is revealed. The thesis begins with a historical survey of musical scholarship that eventually brings the reader to the center of the controversy that ensued during the Renaissance, and then forward to present day discussions in philosphy of music that are concerned with music's subjective and temporal properties. It is hoped that the reader will see the need for a new shift to occur in philosophy of music that focuses on music's objective and eternal properies (that are wholly distinct from the subject experiencing it), and will come away with a new perspective regarding the interdisciplinary nature of philosphy and music.

Habilitationsschrift--Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, 1974. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [417]-427) and index.