I ran across this interesting passage in “The Laws”:
“…Nothing gains an influence so easily over youthful and impressionable minds as the various notes of song, the greatness of whose power both for good and evil can hardly be set forth in words. For it arouses the languid, and calms the excited; now it restrains our desires, now gives them free rein.
Many Greek states considered it important to retain their old tunes; but when their songs became less manly, their characters turned to effeminacy at the same time perhaps because they were corrupted by the sweetness and debilitating seductiveness of the new music, as some believe, or perhaps when other vices had first caused a relaxation of the strictness of their lives, and their ears and their hearts had already undergone a change, room was offered for this change in their music as well.
For this reason the man who was by the wisest and by far the most learned whom Greece has produced [Plato] was very much afraid of such a degeneration. For he says there can be no change in the laws of music without a resulting change in the laws of the State.
My opinion, however, is that such a change is neither so greatly to be feared, nor, on the other hand, to be considered of no importance at all; and yet I do observe that audiences which used to be deeply affected by the inspiring sternness of the music of Livius and Naevius, now leap up and twist their necks and turn their eyes in time with our modern tunes. Ancient Greece used to punish such offences severely, perceiving long before the event that corruption gradually creeps into the hearts of citizens, and, by infecting them with evil desires and evil ideas, works the swift and total destruction of States….”
Marcus Cicero, “The Laws”, ca. 44 B.C.
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Sounds familiar. What he would say about our music today?
I like Cicero. His writings give a fascinating portrayal of the life and views of Rome’s leading statesmen at the end of the Roman Republic. In spite of the upheaval and corruption of the times and though he was pragmatic at times, he remained dedicated to fighting for the republic. Ultimately it cost him his life in 43 BC.
His writing style is very readable and down to earth. I appreciate that he tends to avoid the dialectic style. Most of the ancient philosophers and even many modern academics use that style, which seems particularly unnatural and frustrating to my brain. (But then again, I’m not a philosopher.)
One of my favorite quotes:
If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.
Letter to his friend Terentius Varro
