| Date | Author | Title | Source | Quotation by Merton |
| 1963/07/14 | Aurelius Augustinus | De Musica |
Ltrs: SofC p. 178
| Your ideas on music are of course very monastic and I am sure if you wanted to you could find some thrilling things in the Augustinian tradition. All starting with A.'s De Musica and coming on down into the Middle Ages, getting into architecture at the same time. Do you know that in the building of St. Denis and Chartres, and other such cathedrals or abbeys, the proportions are consciously likened to musical intervals and modes, so that the monks were aware that the nave was third mode, the sanctuary fourth and so on. There is a most interesting book about this, which I can look up if you are interested. But from what you say, I think you are more like some of the Greek Fathers, though I don't know which. I think Pope John's remark is most true and suggests many fine ideas about the chant and liturgy. |