#000520
The Spiritual Basis of Musical Harmony
Graham H. Jackson
Graham H. Jackson's *The Spiritual Basis of Musical Harmony* is an ambitious, esoteric inquiry into why music moves us, arguing that harmony rests on deeper spiritual and cosmic foundations. Reportedly worked on over some forty years, the book ranges across the overtone and undertone series, number and space, ancient Greek and Dionysian music, rhythm and will, and figures such as Wagner and inspiration, drawing heavily on the anthroposophical thought of Rudolf Steiner. It treats the musician as a whole human being and harmony as a meeting point of sound, spirit and mathematics. This is speculative philosophy of music rather than a conventional theory text; it speaks to readers drawn to Steiner, esoteric traditions and the metaphysics of sound.
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The author
Graham H. Jackson is a musician and writer working in the tradition of anthroposophy — the spiritual philosophy founded by Rudolf Steiner — who by his own account labored on this book, off and on, for some forty-two years. His concern is less the mechanics of harmony than its spiritual meaning.
The book
Published in 2006 by the Canadian small press Battered Silicon Dispatch Box, the book moves through the physics of overtones and undertones, sacred geometry and number, Greek and Dionysian music, and the will expressed in rhythm, building toward a Steiner-inflected account of harmony as a bridge between the human being and the cosmos.
How to read it
Read it as esoteric philosophy, not as mainstream music theory: its framework is anthroposophical and its claims metaphysical rather than empirical. Readers sympathetic to Steiner will find it rich; those wanting conventional harmonic analysis should look elsewhere.
For more context
It sits within the wider literature of anthroposophical arts and Steiner's own lectures on music and tone.
Sources
- Type
- Book
- Author / Maker
- Graham H. Jackson
- Publisher
- Battered Silicon Dispatch Box
- Place of publication
- Ontario
- Year
- 2006
- ISBN
- None
- Shelf
- Music
- Location
- Colorado