The medieval university curriculum consisted of seven parts, called the "liberal arts". These studies were held to be the sum total of all knowledge that was necessary for a complete education and were divided into two groups, one concerning language (words) and the other mathematics (numbers).

Besides forming groups by words and numbers, there are also pairs formed between groups: grammar and arithmetic both deal with basic skills, logic and geometry both deal with basic concepts, and rhetoric and astronomy both deal with basic practices.

The word arts have a natural increase in intensity, from the simplicity of grammatical mechanics to the fire of rhetorical persuasion. The number arts have an equally natural decrease in intensity, from the bustle of calculation to the mystery of the cosmos.

1. Grammar presents small mechanical fragments against woodwind sentences.
2. Logic weaves palindromic melodies over to regularly spaced pyramids of brass.
3. Rhetoric speaks with dramatic statements and forceful declamation.
4. Arithmetic is a counting game of both addition and subtraction.
5. Geometry shapes giant squares and triangles of sound.
6. Astronomy whispers the stillness of the cosmos against mysterious clicks, and fades with a final question:
   
   What is the seventh liberal art?