Why Music Belongs in the Great Books Tradition

Classical educators love the Great Books—the enduring works that have shaped civilizations and formed the moral imagination of generations. These books serve as the backbone of a classical education because they invite students into the “Great Conversation”: the dialogue across centuries about truth, goodness, beauty, virtue, justice, and the human condition.

But here's a question for thought - Could music be one important (but often overlooked) voice in that Great Conversation?

Not music theory, not performance technique—

but music as a Great Work, carrying ideas, responding to culture, and shaping the minds and hearts of listeners just as profoundly as any text.

Is it possible that, in a truly classical education, music belongs alongside Plato, Homer, Augustine, Shakespeare, and the rest of the canon? Here’s why the answer may be "yes."

1. Music Is a Primary Source in the History of Ideas

We rarely think of music as a “text,” but historically, it absolutely is.

Music records the beliefs, values, worldview, and preoccupations of every age—often more directly than written sources. Gregorian chant reveals the medieval understanding of worship and transcendence. Renaissance polyphony reflects harmony, order, and human flourishing. Beethoven’s symphonies grapple with freedom, heroism, and the dignity of the individual.

Just like literature, music shows us:

• what a culture loved

• what it feared

• what it hoped for

• how it understood beauty and truth.

To study history without listening to its music is like studying the Great Books without ever reading poetry. You can do it—but you miss the emotional core.

2. Music Is One of the Earliest Classical Disciplines

The liberal arts tradition itself includes music.

In the quadrivium—arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy—music was considered a mathematical and philosophical discipline, not an extracurricular activity. Classical thinkers believed that music shaped the soul, trained the mind in proportion and harmony, and cultivated virtue.

Plato went so far as to argue that changing musical styles would change a society’s moral character.

For thousands of years, classical educators believed music was essential to forming wise, virtuous people. If we want to inherit the classical tradition faithfully, we can’t treat music as optional.

3. Great Music Participates in the Great Conversation

Just as books answer one another across centuries, music does the same.

Monteverdi debates with medieval polyphony. Bach responds to the contrapuntal tradition before him and elevates it. Haydn and Mozart talk to each other musically. Beethoven pushes classical forms to their breaking point. Brahms wrestles with Beethoven’s legacy. Stravinsky and Schoenberg take opposite responses to the crisis of modernity.

Music history is full of:

• questions

• arguments

• breakthroughs

• reinterpretations

• cultural commentary

This is the Great Conversation—just expressed in sound instead of prose.

When we only teach literature, we limit our children to one dimension of that conversation. When we include music, the world opens.

4. Music Forms the Moral Imagination Through Beauty

Classical educators understand that we are shaped by what we love, not simply what we know. Beauty trains our affections—it orients our hearts toward what is good.

Music is one of the most powerful shaping forces of beauty in a child’s life.

Research aside, experience tells us that:

• A noble hymn strengthens the spirit

• A Bach fugue orders the mind

• A Beethoven slow movement expands emotional understanding

• A folk song connects us to our roots

• A film score illuminates a story’s moral arc

Great music forms the soul in ways that are both subtle and profound. If the Great Books cultivate a life of virtue through language, great music does the same through beauty.

5. Music Makes the Great Books Come Alive

When students hear the chant that shaped the medieval worldview, or Renaissance music echoing the humanism of the period, or a symphony emerging from Enlightenment ideals, the Great Books suddenly gain color and breath and dimension.

Music is not merely an illustration—it is a partner discipline.

Studying music alongside the Great Books helps students:

• understand historical context more deeply

• feel the emotional climate of an era

• hear philosophical ideas expressed artistically

• enter the mindset of people from different times

Music allows students to experience history—not just study it.

6. Music Appeals to the Whole Person

One of the distinctive features of the classical model is its commitment to forming the whole child—mind, body, heart, and soul.

Music reaches all of these:

• Mind: It teaches structure, proportion, logic, and attention.

• Heart: It cultivates empathy, emotional depth, and imagination.

• Soul: It awakens a love of beauty and trains the affections.

• Body: It invites participation through singing, rhythm, and movement.

In other words, music is the perfect partner for the Great Books because it forms the same virtues—but through a different mode of experience.

Bringing Music Into Your Great Books Homeschool

You do not need a music degree to include music meaningfully in your homeschool.

Start simply:

• Listen to one great piece every week

• Discuss what you hear

• Connect music to the time period you’re studying

• Draw connections between music and literature

• Let your children experience beauty regularly

If you’d like a structured, guided way to do this without overwhelm, the

MusicIQ course was created for exactly this purpose—helping classical homeschool families bring meaningful music history and appreciation into their homes with confidence and joy.

Music belongs in the Great Books tradition.

It always has.

And your children are richer for experiencing it.