A little about the connections between Pythagoras and music.

Everyone has heard about Pythagoras and his theorem, but not everyone knows that he was a great sage who influenced ancient Greek and Roman culture, leaving an indelible mark on world history. Pythagoras was considered the first philosopher, he also made many discoveries in music, geometry and astronomy; also, he was unbeatable in fist fights.

The philosopher first studied with his compatriots and was initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries. Then he traveled a lot and collected bits of truth from different teachers, for example, he visited Egypt, Syria, Phenicia, studied with the Chaldeans, went through the Babylonian mysteries, and there is even evidence that Pythagoras received knowledge from the Brahmins in India.

Having collected puzzles of different teachings, the philosopher deduced the doctrine of Harmony, to which everything is subordinated. Then Pythagoras created his society, which was a kind of aristocracy of the spirit, where people studied the arts and sciences, trained their bodies with various exercises and educated their spirits through various practices and regulations.

The teachings of Pythagoras showed the unity of everything in diversity, and the main goal of man was expressed in the fact that through self-development, man achieved union with the Cosmos, avoiding further rebirth.

Legends that are associated with Pythagoras and Music

Musical harmony in the teachings of Pythagoras is a model of universal harmony, which consists of notes – various aspects of the Universe. It was believed that Pythagoras heard the music of the spheres, which were certain sound vibrations that emanated from the stars and planets and were woven together into divine harmony – Mnemosyne. Also, Pythagoras and his disciples used certain chants and sounds of the lyre to calm their minds or heal from certain diseases.

According to legend, it was Pythagoras who discovered the laws of musical harmony and the properties of harmonic relationships between sounds. Legend has it that a teacher was walking one day and heard the sounds of hammers from the forge, forging iron; After listening to them, he realized that their knocking created harmony.

Later, Pythagoras experimentally established that the difference in sounds depends only on the mass of the hammer, and not on other characteristics. Then the philosopher made a device from strings with different numbers of weights; the strings were attached to a nail that was driven into the wall of his house. By striking the strings, he derived the concept of the octave, and the fact that its ratio is 2:1, he discovered the fifth and fourth.

Pythagoras then made a device with parallel strings that were tensioned by pegs. Using this instrument, he established that certain consonances and laws exist in many instruments: flutes, cymbals, lyres and other devices with which rhythm and melody can be produced.

There is a legend that tells that one day while walking, Pythagoras saw a frantic drunken crowd that was behaving inappropriately, and a flute player was walking in front of the crowd. The philosopher ordered this musician, who accompanied the crowd, to play in spondaic time; he began to play, and instantly everyone sobered up and calmed down. This is how you can control people with the help of music.

Modern scientific theories and practical confirmation of Pythagorean views on music

Sounds can both heal and kill. Music treatments, such as harp therapy, have been recognized and studied in some countries (for example, at the British Institute, harp melodies are used to facilitate chemotherapy). The Pythagorean doctrine of the music of the spheres is confirmed by the modern theory of superstrings: vibrations that permeate all outer space.