the words of one of the sages. Figures seated on the upper register read
books, presumably as future students of a living past. The image frames the
epistles in a relationship between speech and writing in which text serves as
an edifice capable of traversing time.^25
Thefifth epistle transforms earlier cosmological concerns into theologi-
cal ones, indicating that musical mimesis conditions a recipient to engage
the divine. The epistle taxonomizes sound, particularly music, as a mimetic
language that is directly spiritual because its expression obviates the use of
matter.
In every manual craft the matter dealt with consists of naturally occurring material,
and that all its products are physical forms. The exception is music, for the‘matter’
it deals with consists entirely of spiritual substances, namely, the souls of those who
listen to it. The effects it has on them are also entirely spiritual, for melodies,
consisting of rhythms and tones, have effects on the soul analogous to the effects of
the art of those who work with the particular material associated with their crafts.^26
For the Brethren, this inward mimetic capacity served as a trans-religious
vehicle of worship.
With regard to the use of music by the custodians of divine ordinances in temples
and places of worship, when reciting during ritual prayer, at sacrifices, when praying,
supplicating, and lamenting, as the prophet David used to do when reciting his
psalms, and as the Christians now do in their churches and the Muslims in their
mosques, with sweetness of tone and a melodic form of recitation–all that is used for
hearts to be softened and souls to be humble, submissive, and obedient to the
commands and prohibitions of God almighty.^27
Instead of relying on a static symbolic iconography as in European
painting, music was understood to produce an affective iconography
inhering in the recipient through audition. Elaborating on al-Kindi’s pal-
ette of three emotions, the Brethren suggest that the sages developed
melodies evoking their proliferation. For example, sorrowful melodies
would,“when heard, soften hearts, cause eyes to weep, and instil in souls
remorse for past sins, inner sincerity, and a cleansing of conscience.”^28
Music would embolden soldiers to battle; be used around dawn in hospitals
to alleviate the suffering of patients; offer solace at funerals and sooth
sorrow; alleviate the exhaustion of the body and weariness of the soul
during heavy labor; and complement rejoicing, delight, and pleasure,
such as at wedding feasts. They argued that limited knowledge of music(^25) Berlekamp, 2011 : 51. (^26) Wright, 2010 :76–77. (^27) Wright, 2010 : 82.
(^28) Wright, 2010 : 83.
64 Seeing with the Ear