{"id":61,"date":"2026-06-21T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/guskraus.net\/blog\/?p=61"},"modified":"2026-06-21T10:10:24","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T08:10:24","slug":"listening-to-palestinian-music-or-how-to-better-understand-plotinus-in-on-beauty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/guskraus.net\/blog\/2026\/06\/21\/listening-to-palestinian-music-or-how-to-better-understand-plotinus-in-on-beauty\/","title":{"rendered":"Listening to Palestinian Music, or How to Better Understand Plotinus in “On Beauty”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Plotinus\u2019 short remarks concerning music in the first section of his treatise “On Beauty” (En. <\/em>I.6) both reveal something interesting about his aesthetics and demonstrate the need to historically contextualize his work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plotinus begins his chronologically very first treatise writing that <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u03c4\u1f78 \u03ba\u03b1\u03bb\u1f78\u03bd \u1f14\u03c3\u03c4\u03b9 \u03bc\u1f72\u03bd \u1f10\u03bd \u1f44\u03c8\u03b5\u03b9 \u03c0\u03bb\u03b5\u1fd6\u03c3\u03c4\u03bf\u03bd, \u1f14\u03c3\u03c4\u03b9 \u03b4\u2019 \u1f10\u03bd \u1f00\u03ba\u03bf\u03c5\u03b1\u1fd6\u03c2 \u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u03ac \u03c4\u03b5 \u03bb\u03cc\u03b3\u03c9\u03bd \u03c3\u03c5\u03bd\u03b8\u03ad\u03c3\u03b5\u03b9\u03c2, \u1f14\u03c3\u03c4\u03b9 \u03b4\u1f72 \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u1f10\u03bd \u03bc\u03bf\u03c5\u03c3\u03b9\u03ba\u1fc7 \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u1f01\u03c0\u03ac\u03c3\u1fc3\u00b7 \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u03b3\u1f70\u03c1 \u03bc\u03ad\u03bb\u03b7 \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u1fe5\u03c5\u03b8\u03bc\u03bf\u03af \u03b5\u1f30\u03c3\u03b9 \u03ba\u03b1\u03bb\u03bf\u03af<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat which is beautiful is often found in that which is seen, but also in things which are heard, that is, in the composition of words and in music in all aspects: for melodies and rhythms are also beautiful.\u201d (En. <\/em>I.6.1-3, my translation).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Already from the start, even if Plotinus following in the general Platonic framework connects Beauty primarily to the sense of sight, he shows a serious interest in mousik\u0113 <\/em>\u2013 that pertaining to the nine Muses, which in theory could include a variety of arts but contextually seems referring more to music and poetry \u2013 through his digression into the aspects of music. Andrew Smith notes the use of \u03c4\u03b5 \u201csuggests strongly the live seminar nature of Plotinus\u2019 writing style of composition, as if he is creatively thinking as he writes\u201d (Smith 2019, 24). This digression then reveals something about the rhetorical style of the Plotinian seminar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plotinus\u2019 analysis of music into three component parts \u2013 logoi <\/em>(words), mel\u0113 <\/em>(melodies) and rhuthmoi<\/em> (rhythms) \u2013 corresponds (Kalligas 2014, 195) to the threefold division of music in Republic <\/em>398d: \u03bb\u03cc\u03b3\u03bf\u03c5 \u03c4\u03b5 \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u1f01\u03c1\u03bc\u03bf\u03bd\u03af\u03b1\u03c2 \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u1fe5\u03c5\u03b8\u03bc\u03bf\u1fe6 (\u201c… of word and of harmony and of rhythm\u201d). This threefold division is flexible enough to cover a broad range of the sense of mousik\u0113<\/em>. Take, for example, the first words of Virgil\u2019s Aeneid<\/em> or Homer\u2019s Iliad<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ar<\/strong>-ma vi-rum<\/strong>-que can-o <\/strong>\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u03bc\u1fc6\u03bd-<\/strong>\u03b9\u03bd \u1f04-\u03b5\u03b9-<\/strong>\u03b4\u03b5 \u03b8\u03b5-\u1f70<\/strong>\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even if these are recited without instrumental accompaniment, we can observe the meanings of the words themselves (logoi<\/em>; “I sing of arms and a man…”, “Sing the anger, O Goddess…”), the accentuation (with more complexity in the polytonic system of Greek pitch accent) of those words (mel\u0113<\/em> or harmonia<\/em>) and the metrical structure of the verse (rhuthmoi<\/em>, long syllables marked in bold). Though melodic and rhythmic components would be even clearer in Greek and Latin lyric poetry, such as that of Sappho, performed over the music of a lyra<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plotinus moves on from this digression into music to frame his general questions and aporiai<\/em> for the whole of the treatise, before tackling a view of beauty held by \u201cvirtually all\u201d (En<\/em>. I.6.1.21), that \u201csymmetry among parts towards each other and towards the whole, with good coloration added, makes beauty appear to the eye\u201d (En. <\/em>I.6.1.21-22). He is again prioritizing beauty in sight, and as Gerson, Smith, Henry and Schwyzer and many others note, he appears to be attacking a view defended by the Stoics. But Kalligas notes that this view was also present among non-philosophical literature produced by artists themselves, as he cites a fragment (40A3 DK) from the Canon<\/em> of the sculptor Polykleitos preserved by Galen\u2019s On the Doctrines of Hippocrates and Plato <\/em>V.3.15-17 (Kalligas 2014, 196). Appropriately, Plotinus\u2019 response to the view includes, among other arguments, a rhetorical appeal to arts and to artists, too: namely, to musicians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He begins to ask a series of rhetorical questions, giving examples of things which are simple and non-composite which we find beautiful, but which a theory of beauty as symmetry among parts cannot explain given their partlessness. Following these, he says that<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u1f10\u03c0\u1f76 \u03c4\u03b5 \u03c4\u1ff6\u03bd \u03c6\u03c9\u03bd\u1ff6\u03bd \u1f61\u03c3\u03b1\u03cd\u03c4\u03c9\u03c2 \u03c4\u1f78 \u1f01\u03c0\u03bb\u03bf\u1fe6\u03bd \u03bf\u1f30\u03c7\u03ae\u03c3\u03b5\u03c4\u03b1\u03b9, \u03ba\u03b1\u03af\u03c4\u03bf\u03b9 \u1f11\u03ba\u03ac\u03c3\u03c4\u03bf\u03c5 \u03c6\u03b8\u03cc\u03b3\u03b3\u03bf\u03c5 \u03c0\u03bf\u03bb\u03bb\u03b1\u03c7\u1fc7 \u03c4\u1ff6\u03bd \u1f10\u03bd \u03c4\u1ff7 \u1f45\u03bb\u1ff3 \u03ba\u03b1\u03bb\u1ff7 \u03ba\u03b1\u03bb\u03bf\u1fe6 \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u03b1\u1f50\u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6 \u1f44\u03bd\u03c4\u03bf\u03c2
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd concerning [the beauty] of sounds, they will disappear in the same way, even though often in a whole [musical composition] each voice is also itself beautiful.\u201d (En. <\/em>I.6.1.34-36, my translation)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two things are noteworthy about this reference Plotinus makes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Firstly, it is an example of what Ota G\u00e1l calls the \u201cdistributive notion\u201d of Beauty, where the Beauty of the whole is extended to the parts themselves (G\u00e1l 2022, 20-22). For Plotinus, the whole musical performance is beautiful, and this is accounted for by the symmetrical theory of beauty as it is a composite of a variety of voices and instruments and because, as discussed previously, music itself has a threefold division. But Plotinus here wishes to argue further that each individual voice within a musical ensemble is beautiful, and even that each sound they make is beautiful. This is to say, he wants to argue that beauty is distributed among the parts of a beautiful thing as much as it is present in the whole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Secondly, it reveals how Plotinus thinks about musical compositions and shows the historical contingency of his understanding of music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If we apply what Plotinus is saying to a piece of Western Classical music, his argument may not be particularly clear. For example, for the first measures of the \u201cOde to Joy\u201d choral ode from the 4th Movement of Beethoven\u2019s Symphony No. 9, the voice of the bass is not singing a melody which is interesting or moving in its own right. The first measure is simply four G notes in a row, and following these it is clear the bass voice is tracing the root notes of chords formed by the higher voices. Indeed, the simplicity and stability of bass allows for more dynamic melodies in the tenor, alto and especially soprano range (the melody which he remember when we hum the “Ode to Joy” to ourselves is not the bass melody). This example really seems to mitigate against Plotinus\u2019 argument, that each voice is itself beautiful, given that the beauty of the bass voice in \u201cOde to Joy\u201d is only manifest in harmony with other voices (it may be really beautiful, but only because of the whole).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a clear example of why historicizing Plotinus\u2019 allusions is important for understanding his arguments. A polyphonic composition in the Western Classical style would be extremely foreign to the world of Antiquity, and the musical compositions which survive from slightly before Plotinus\u2019 life (from Mesomedes of Crete, who flourished during the reign of the Emperor Hadrian), show a heterophonic or monophonic structure \u2013 where either one voice would sing the melody, or multiple voices would sing largely the same melody with slight ornamenting variations. One example of this can be seen in a reconstruction of a piece attributed to Mesomedes by Farya Faraji, where the latter half of the performance includes multiple voices singing in the same melody:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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