Description:
8 lectures, 2 Q&A sessions, and 2 closing addresses, in various cities, December 3, 1906 - March 16, 1923 (CW 283)
"A tone is at the foundation of everything in the physical world."
This is one of many astonishing statements made by Rudolf Steiner in this collection of lectures on the inner realities of music. These lectures are an unusual treasure, as they are the only series of lectures that Rudolf Steiner gave primarily on music (other than the lecture cycle for the tone eurythmy course, Eurythmy as Visible Singing). The lectures are supplemented by two question-and-answer sessions and two short addresses.
In the first group of four lectures, given in 1906, Steiner explains why music affects the human soul so powerfully. Music has always held a special position among the arts because it is the only art form whose archetype, or source, lies not in the physical world, as with architecture, sculpture, and painting, but purely in the spiritual world--the soul's true home. Music thus directly expresses through tones the innermost essence of the cosmos, and our sense of wellbeing when we hear music comes from a recognition of our soul's experience in the spiritual world.
In the later lectures and addresses, given between 1920 and 1923, Steiner discusses our experience of musical intervals and shows how it has undergone profound changes during the course of evolution. The religious effects of music in ancient times and the union of music with speech are considered, as well as the origin of musical instruments out of imaginations that accompanied singing. New insights are offered on the nature of the major and minor modes and on future directions of musical development.
This book is a brilliant and inspiring companion for anyone seeking deeper insight into the mystery of music.
"Major and minor keys, this strange bond between music and human subjectivity, the actual inner life of feeling--insofar as this life of feeling is bound to the earthly corporeality--came into being only in the course of the fourth post-Atlantean epoch and are related to the experience of the third. The difference between major and minor keys appears; the subjective soul element relates itself to the musical element." -- Rudolf Steiner (lect. 5)
This volume is a translation of Das Wesen des Musikalischen und das Tonerlebnis im Menschen, published by Rudolf Steiner-Nachlaftverwaltung, Dornach, 1969 (GA 283).
Brief description: Maria St. Goar (1928-2018) was born in Matsue, Japan, a daughter of Dr. Fritz and Emmela Karsch, who were German citizens. The family lived in Japan throughout World War II. Maria had a limited formal education and was primarily home-schooled in Japan by her mother. Maria had a voracious appetite for reading. At age 12 she began studying Anthroposophy, beginning with books on the Old and New Testament by Emil Bock. Eventually she became fluent in three languages (German, English, Japanese), leading to her future translation work. After the American occupation of Japan began, Maria accepted a position as an interpreter at the International War Crimes Tribunal in the Prosecution Section and arrived in the United States in 1949. Her first marriage ended shortly thereafter, but she married again in 1954, this time to Herbert St. Goar a former German refugee who arrived in the United States just before the War in 1938. Maria worked and volunteered her time as a translator of numerous anthroposophic works by Rudolf Steiner and related authors from German into English for publication in the United States and Great Britain. In 1989, Maria began serving as a Class holder for Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama, was a member of The Christian Community.