On Mystery, Ineffability, Silence and Musical Symbolism

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Collecting together numerous examples of Augustines musical imagery in action, Laurence Wuidar reconstructs the linguistic laboratory and the hermeneutics in which he worked. Sensitive and poetical, this volume is a reminder that the metaphor of music can give access not only to human interiority, but allow the human mind to achieve proximity to the divine mind. Composed by one of Europes leading musicologists now engaging an English-speaking audience for the first time, this book is a candid exploration of Wuidars expertise. Drawing on her long knowledge of music and the occult, from antiquity to modernity, Wuidar particularly focuses upon Augustines working methods while refusing to be distracted by questions of faith or morality. The result is an open and at times frightening vista on the powers that be, and our complex need to commune with them.

Reviews

[This book] is a boon for any reader interested in Augustines insights on music and the musical valence of his theology in general. Wuidars work sustains a throughline that foregrounds Augustines attention to musical symbolism and presents music as a very attractive model for the God/human relationship. This will be worthwhile reading for those interested in sound studies, philosophy, music, theology, and the intersection of the above. With this book Wuidar has done a service inmaking a foray into the musically rich Enarrationes and retrieving the mind of one of the great thinkers of the Christian tradition. * Religion and Theology *
Laurence Wuidar introduces readers to the many and complex meanings attributed to music by Christians; all of which she does by a careful analysis of Augustine's Expositions on the Psalms... Her beautiful essay highlights the profound link established by Augustine between the affections and music, as well as the profound metaphorical values of the latter. She leaves the reader with the feeling that these reflections of Augustine were by no means secondary to the rest of his corpus. -- Vittorino Grossi, The Augustinianum, Italy
Laurence Wuidar invites us to rethink the categories of discourse about music, and really, music itself, and what it can convey in relation to God and the unknown. Hers is a masterful study of the ineffable, using words that move the reader beyond the limits of words, and into the realm of pure knowing. -- Susan Wessel, The Catholic University of America, USA

Author Bio

Laurence Wuidar teaches the Philosophy of Music and the History of Medieval Philosophy at the Dominican Studium in Bologna, Italy.