The Military, Bagpipes, and Boethius

This July my brother started his freshman year at the Naval Academy, ready to endure the trials of plebe summer. The Academy’s mission for the year is to train the plebes “morally, physically, and mentally.” Part of the strict military regimen for plebes includes a restriction from music apart from the morning bagpipes, marching music, classical choir music, and liturgical music for those who attend Church. Though at first glance the rules regarding music may seem excessively stringent, the wisdom of Plato, Aristotle, and Boethius illuminates the importance of these seemingly unnecessary rules and gives civilian college students guidance for choosing their own music.

Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, Boethius, Newman and the past three popes illustrate the power of music to either ennoble or corrupt the soul. In the 6th Century, the Christian philosopher Boethius, wrote:

Music can both establish and destroy morality. For no path is more open to the soul for the formation thereof than through the ears. Therefore when the rhythms and modes have penetrated even to the soul through these organs, it cannot be doubted that they affect the soul with their own character and conform it to themselves.

Plato and Aristotle posited that music holds this poignant effect because of its ability to represent moral states and place a listener into the emotional or moral state it imitates. Thus, music habituates our physical and emotional disposition and sympathies to virtue/vice in a profound and lasting way. So why would the Academy choose those specific types of music and ban the plebes from listening to their own music?

First, steady marching beats and bagpipes imitate the stern, yet peaceful resolve of noble courage, an important virtue for anyone in military life. While marching music trains the plebes to live life with a calm, stoic resolve, good Liturgical music imitates and engenders contemplation of God and reflection of the highest things.

The effects of rock and rap music may have equally negative effects because of the agitating, sensuous, angry, and despairing emotional states this music often imitates; the explosive bursts of sound may remind a listener of the firing of machine guns and other base activites. This is why Christian rock/rap is fundamentally incoherent; the rhythm and the words communicate inimical messages.

That’s not to say there’s no place for other types of music in our own lives. Folk music is how we tell stories and celebrate the joys and sorrows of life together. Likewise, not all music imitating anger is bad or demoralizing; the Dies Ire exemplifies noble wrath.

As college students, we’re so surrounded by demoralizing and superficial music, we often forget the profound effects of music on our own receptiveness to virtue and vice. We would do well to heed the advice of Plato and Boethius when choosing music.

Since naught so stockish, hard, and full of rage,

But music for the time doth change his nature.

The man that hath no music in himself,

Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds,

Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils.

The motions of his spirit are dull as night,

And his affections dark as Erebus.

Let no such man be trusted. Mark the music. (Shakespeare The Merchant of Venice V.i.80-87)