Cassiodorus Senator (EN)

Cassiodorus Senator Flavius Magnus Aurelius, *485–87, †ca. 580, Roman writer and politician. He came from a prominent Syrian family that owned estates near Scyllacium (now Squillace) in Calabria. Cassiodorus’s father held the office of praefectus praetorio at the court of Theodoric, King of the Ostrogoths, in Rome. Cassiodorus played a significant political role at Theodoric’s court, holding successively the offices of quaestor (506–11 or 512), consul (514–23) and magister officiorum (523–27). During the reign of Theodoric’s successor, Athalaric, Cassiodorus held the office of praefectus praetorio (533–37). After the fall of the Ostrogothic Kingdom, he withdrew from political life and lived as an exile in Constantinople from 549 to 553. Upon his return to his homeland, he devoted himself entirely to literary pursuits. On his family’s estate, he founded the Vivarium monastery (now in Staletti, province of Catanzaro), which became a centre of learning; among other things, the writings of Greek authors were translated into Latin there. Cassiodorus spent the rest of his life in this monastery and wrote most of his works there.

Cassiodorus is the author of encyclopaedic, rhetorical and historical works (including Historia ecclesiastica tripartita) as well as a collection of letters (12 books). He addressed musical issues in the following works: Epistola ad Boetium (ca. 506), Expositio in psalterium (ca. 540) and Institutiones de musica. These were written at different stages of Cassiodorus’s life. The Epistola ad Boetium, concerning the search for a singer-kitharode for the Frankish king Clovis, written during Cassiodorus’s time at Theodoric’s court, contains a brief lecture on ancient music, based mainly on the writings of Varro, in which Cassiodorus discussed the theory of ethos and the therapeutic properties of music, the so-called effectus musicae (including the example of David and Saul). The letter also contains references to musical scales and instruments. The Expositio in psalterium and Institutiones de musica were written at the Vivarium monastery after Cassiodorus had converted to Christianity. These writings reveal a tendency to combine ancient tradition with Christian mysticism; music was regarded as a path to the knowledge of divine wisdom. In his writings, Cassiodorus drew upon the views of Alypius, Euclid, Ptolemy, Varro, as well as St Augustine and Censorinus. The reliance on various traditions and authorities is evident, for example, in the formulation of concepts and definitions of music cited by Cassiodorus, such as: “Musica est scientia bene modulandi” (St Augustine), “Musica est disciplina vel scientia, quae de numeris loquitur” (the Pythagorean tradition). Cassiodorus likely adopted the threefold division of music into harmonica, rhythmica and metrica from the writings of Alypius; the threefold division of instruments into percussionalia, tensibilia and flatilia also derives from the Greek tradition; the 15 modes (Dorian, Aeolian, Phrygian, Lydian, along with their hypo- and hyper-variants) were taken from the writings of later representatives of the school of Aristoxenus. Cassiodorus’s writings, particularly the Institutiones de musica, exerted a significant influence on medieval music theory. They were used by, amongst others: Isidore of Seville, Aurelian of Réôme and Regino of Prüm. For a long time, his classification of music and the order of consonances he established (sex symphoniae: diatessaron, diapente, diapason, diapason + diatessaron, diapason + diapente, disdiapason) were cited. In Poland, Cassiodorus’s authority persisted into the 16th century; his views were relied upon by, amongst others, Marek z Płocka and Jerzy Liban z Legnicy.

Literature: H. Abert Zu Cassiodorus, “Sammelbände der Internationalen Musikgesellschaft” III, 1901/02; H. Abert Die Musikanschauung des Mittelalters und ihre Grundlagen, Halle 1905; G. Pietzsch Die Klassifikation der Musik von Boetius bis Ugolino von Orvieto, Halle 1929; G. Pietzsch Die Musik im Erziehungs- und Bildungsideal des ausgehenden Altertums und frühen Mittelalters, Halle 1932; O. Gombosi Studien zur Tonartenlehre des frühen Mittelalters, “Acta Musicologica” X–XI, 1938/39; M.L.W. Laistner The Medieoal Organ and a Cassiodorus Glossary, “Speculum” V, 1938; O. Gombosi Tonarten und Stimmungen der antiken Musik, Copenhagen 1939, 2nd edition 1950; G. Wille Musica Romana, Amsterdam 1967; N.C. Phillips Classical and Late Latin Sources for Ninth-Century Treatises on Music and M. Huglo The Study of Ancient Sources of Music Theory in the Medieval University, in: Music Theory and Its Sources. Antiquity and the Middle Ages, ed. A. Barbera, South Bend 1990; M. Bernhard Überlieferung und Fortleben der antiken lateinischen Musiktheorie im Mittelalter, in: Rezeption des antiken Fachs im Mittelalter, ed. M. Zaminer, Darmstadt 1990; C.M. Bower An 11th-Century Italian “gloss” on Cassiodorus. New Evidence Concerning Medieval Instruments, is Festschrift for H. Leuchtmann, ed. S. Hörner and B. Schmid, Tutzing 1993.