Meaning and the Cluny Capitals: Music as Metaphor

Abstract

The figurative capitals of the Cluny hemicycle form a cohesive program that resembles, in structure and content, a speculative musical treatise. It is argued here that the choice of subjects is not a random assortment of quaternities in the manner of Radulphus Glaber, but is determined by the triple division of Musica as defined by Boethius in his De institutione musica, the fundamental text for all subsequent medieval musical theory. Musica mundana is represented in the cycle by the presence of the Seasons, the Four Rivers of Paradise, and the Elements. Musica humana is exemplified in the representation of the Quadrivium, the Cardinal Virtues, and the Humors. Musica instrumentalis consists of the representation of the Tones. A close analysis of the tituli reveals the efforts of a designer who relied primarily on the textual imagery of Boethius found in his De consolatio philosophiae and De arithmetica. The influence of additional literary sources, found in Cluny's library, upon the design of individual capitals suggests an integrated plan that reflected the intellectual and spiritual concerns of the monastic community. The resultant combination of textual and figurative imagery in the deambulatorium Angelorum of Cluny was functional in nature, for it created a musical microcosm that echoed the continual performance of the opus Dei, the essential element of monastic life.