The trivium (or three paths) of grammar, logic, and rhetoric undergird nearly all classical schools. Although the trivium is taught in conjunction with the quadrivium of music, arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy, and although the trivium itself plays a central role in the teaching of math and science, the classical trivium tends to be grounded in the humanities of literature, philosophy, history, and theology.

But what of the fine arts of drawing, painting, sculpting, singing, and playing musical instruments? Should these disciplines (or skills) play a role in the teaching of the humanities, or are they merely peripheral? Most classical educators recognize that a knowledge of the key figures and texts of art and music history is central to understanding the ages that define the historical development of the West: classical, medieval, renaissance, baroque, neoclassical, romantic, modern. Aesthetic history is as essential as military, diplomatic, or intellectual history for achieving a nuanced grasp of the full dimensions of the human story.

Let us indeed teach students to recognize and appreciate the masterpieces of Michelangelo, Leonardo, Rafael, Titian, Rembrandt, Caravaggio, Bernini, and Van Gogh, as well as the timeless compositions of Bach, Handel, Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, and Tchaikovsky. But why devote precious class time to teaching them to draw or paint or sing or play the ukulele? Will learning such skills make them wiser, more virtuous or more eloquent? I think it will!

Goodness, truth, and beauty are more than subjects to be learned. They are qualities to be instilled. It is not enough to teach students to recognize and appreciate great music. They must be afforded the opportunity to participate in the making of music. That does not mean they will all become classical violinists. But it does mean that they should all experience the joy of generating music through their own mouths and/or hands. They must feel the music flowing through them if they are to understand its power and be shaped by its beauty.

The best way to counter the din and cacophony of our noisy, fragmented age is to take students inside the higher melodies and harmonies of music, but that can only be done successfully by training them to enter physically into the music. Good music heard and studied may remain in the students’ minds; good music sung or played will etch itself into their muscle memory.

An education in virtue (the good) does not mean forcing students to blindly follow a long list of do’s and don’ts; it means aligning and orienting them with the nature of God’s moral universe. An education in wisdom (the true) does not mean the mere memorization of facts, no matter how important those facts may be; it means implanting intellectual and spiritual discernment so deeply that it becomes the natural way students interact with the world. Just so, an education in music and art (the beautiful) does not mean offering a survey of aesthetic history and leaving it at that; it means shaping students into vessels through whom beautiful melodies and harmonies, lines and colors can flow into a world that desperately needs those glimpses of Eden.

Students may never become technically perfect painters, but they should be challenged to see the world through the eyes of a painter and to try to capture the elusive beauty of God’s creation. Until we attempt to put on canvas what we see, we will never fully see what we are seeing. When we draw or paint or sculpt the balance and harmony that God put into nature, we become what J. R. R. Tolkien called subcreators, participants, in a lesser mode, in God’s creative power (and desire) to mold chaos into order and shape formless matter into forms of beauty.

Students trained in the trivium learn to write and deliver wise and eloquent essays and orations so that they can express themselves clearly in word and speech. In the same way, students should be trained to sing and sculpt, play and paint as vehicles for expressing clearly that part of their created nature that cannot be captured adequately in written words or persuasive arguments. We are as much creatures who speak as we are creatures who sing. The Bible itself makes use of every genre and medium to proclaim the message of God’s creation and salvation.

Goodness, truth, and beauty are not separate categories but a unified package. All three capture the order, harmony, and balance that God wrote into his cosmos and into our human soul—as such, they have the power to uphold and strengthen each other. If we are truly to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, we must train and equip all those parts of ourselves that can be used to praise God, share his gospel, and convey his goodness, truth, and beauty to the world.

And one last thing. While training students to create individual works of art strengthens in them the spiritual discipline of solitary contemplation, training them to sing in a choir or play in an orchestra strengthens in them the spiritual discipline of communal cooperation. No classical education can be complete that does not train students to see themselves as both individual believers who stand before God and as members of a body that must work in unison to bring God’s Kingdom to earth.

 

Louis Markos, PhD, Professor in English and Scholar in Residence at Houston Christian University, holds the Robert H. Ray Chair in Humanities; his 25 books include The Myth Made Fact and From Plato to Christ. His Passing the Torch: An Apology for Classical Christian Education and From Aristotle to Christ are due out in 2024 and 2025 from IVP Academic.

 

Dr. Louis Markos
College of Arts and Humanities English,
Communication, Great Texts, and Modern Languages

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