CLARITAS (piano score PDF)

CLARITAS — Greg Harradine

Solo piano score. Listen on YouTube.

Key: F major

Duration: approx. 2:20

Grade/level: 6, late intermediate

2 pages. 29 bars total.

About the piece

This is the first of three pieces inspired by a famous definition of beauty — that of Thomas Aquinas. I did not learn about this from reading his Summa Theologica, but — and this will surprise no one who knows me well — from the writings of James Joyce. In A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Stephen Dedalus discusses Aquinas' definition of beauty:

"To finish what I was saying about beauty, said Stephen, the most satisfying relations of the sensible must therefore correspond to the necessary phases of artistic apprehension. Find these and you find the qualities of universal beauty. Aquinas says: Ad pulcritudinem tria requiruntur integritas, consonantia, claritas. I translate it so: Three things are needed for beauty, wholeness, harmony and radiance. Do these correspond to the phases of apprehension? Are you following?"

This much discussed theory of beauty boils it down to three elements: integritas, consonantia, and claritas. Or, in Stephen's translation: beauty, wholeness, and harmony.

I don't think beauty can be simplified to those three elements in such a straightforward and elegant manner, but the idea is nevertheless appealing, and I convinced myself (perhaps foolishly) that it is a fine subject upon which to base a composition (or three). I hope you enjoy the first instalment of my trio of 'Aquinas' pieces.