I am always intrigued
to discover the etymology of words and how they are connected to other
words. One recent curiosity is with the
word “Muse” from which we get the word “musings”, or thoughts. I had always heard of the word “muse” in the
context of some form of inspiration, like when a poet or musician reveals “She
was my muse.” This concept (and the word
itself) actually comes from Greek mythology. Wikipedia explains, “The Muses, the
personification of knowledge and the arts, especially literature, dance and
music, are the nine daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne (memory personified).” So a muse is the source of inspired or
enlightened thoughts/abilities related to the arts. From a mythological perspective, we could say a
muse brings divine thought. In a
creative sense a muse gives inspiration.
And musings are the thoughts or ruminations that captivate us.
And then there is another word
that comes from the same root: Music. In
ancient Greek, music referred to “any of the arts or sciences governed by the
Muses”. What I found extremely interesting is that the
term Music in the European Middle Ages referred to the four main branches of
mathematics: arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and musica. The concept of musica was split into three
kinds by the 6 c. philosopher, Boethius: musica
universalis, musica humana, and musica instrumentalis. Of those, only musica instrumentalis referred to music
as performed sound. I knew music was
based on math and that sound is a science, so this was fascinating to
realize. This also helped explain the
odd phrase I remembered from an old hymn “…the music of the spheres” [This Is
My Father’s World]. Musica universalis wasn’t referring to the noise of the planets,
but the “order of the universe, as God had created it in ‘measure, number and
weight’—music refers strictly to the mathematical proportions.” Although, all of this does bring to mind The
Music of the Ainur by J.R.R. Tolkien; the Ainur being the offspring of the Holy
One’s thought and the singers that created the known world in Tolkien’s Silmarillion. Musica
humana designated the proportions of the human body. Think of Leonardo da
Vinci’s Vitruvian Man. Musica instrumentalis was the lowliest
of the three disciplines and referred to the manifestation of those same
mathematical proportions in sound—be it sung or played on instruments. Since music historically referred to “any of
the arts or sciences governed by the Muses”, it makes sense what Boethius
observed: "Music is so naturally united with us that we cannot be free
from it even if we so desired." The
order, proportion, symmetry, and mathematical design are all around us,
including the rhythm and meter in “sonic math” – instrumental music.
So the inspiration that we get from the world around
us, the music that we can observe, measure, and sometimes hear; these are the
musings, the gifts from the “children of the gods”, that provoke us to higher,
deeper, broader thoughts. And this leads
us to another word that is connected to this same root: Museum. According to the Marriam-Webster dictionary,
Museum is defined as “an institution devoted to the procurement, care, study, and display of
objects of lasting interest or value”. So a
museum is the place to exhibit the product of our musings, the music that is
all around us, the observed and measured things, the things that inspired us
and which we hope will inspire others. The product of our musings found in our
music is best displayed for others to enjoy in a museum. Interestingly, remember Zeus’ wife was Mnemosyne (memory personified). That sounds interestingly similar to what a
museum does. It embodies memories. It takes what is worth remembering, the
profound discoveries, inventions, accomplishments, and creations and enshrines
them for future generations to appreciate.
And
this brings us to the last word -- Amused. The prefix “-a” generally empties the
meaning of a word it is attached to.
Asexual means “not sexual”.
Amoral means to be void of morals.
So when we consider what it means to amuse, or be amused, it’s
surprising to realize our amusement is the absence of divine thought or
inspiration. According to Dictionary.com,
amuse meant “distract, ‘divert from serious business, tickle the fancy of’…. The
primary meaning was ‘deceive, cheat’ by first occupying”. This
is consistent with Neil Postman’s Amusing
Ourselves to Death. So we could
deduce that being amused means we are void of thought or inspiration. We could even suppose we are being diverted
from serious business with the purpose of being deceived or cheated.
So, if the meanings
of words actually mean anything, maybe this tells us we should strive to be
mused and avoid being amused. It should also
help us to understand music is bigger than what we generally think and
definitely all around us. And all of
this should encourage us to find inspiration in the physical world, the human
community, and the harmony of sound that we can produce (all based on
mathematics). And then we can appreciate
what museums actually do – exhibit the music (think math, geometry, astrology,
and music); display the inspirational thoughts and products of our musings, as
well as what we can measure and observe all around us. And whether we attribute this to the
anthropomorphized children of the Greek gods or to the theological Creator
himself, the point of all of this is to appreciate the inspiration, find it
wherever we can, be awed by it, and then allow our musings, meditations,
ruminations of these things to be turned into amazing (not amusing) music
worthy of being exhibited for others to experience.
