Angels-HARPS AND THE MUSIC OF HEAVEN

Angels are often pictured wearing halos and white robes, seated on
clouds, playing harps. This popular image stems partially from a tradition
that views the chief occupation of angels as singing God’s praises.
(This tradition is so significant that the various ranks of angels are
called choirs.) Why harps were chosen as the heavenly instrument par
excellence appears to be based on the association between the Greek
gods and the lyre, a harp-like musical instrument popular in ancient
Greece.
Heavenly music is also associated with the so-called Music of the
Spheres. Prior to the invention of the telescope and the Copernican
revolution, it was generally believed that the earth was the stable center
of the universe, around which the sun, moon, stars, and the five
known planets revolved. Because the sun, moon, and planets moved
along paths of their own, entirely independently of the stars, it was believed that they were “stuck” on a series of
concentric, crystalline (i.e., transparent)
spheres that revolved around the earth,
between the earth and the stars. As these
spheres moved it was said that they resonated
with each other, much as the strings of a harp
will do, thus producing the phenomenon
referred to as the Music of the Spheres. This
conception of the universe may thus have contributed
to the idea that angels play harps
rather than other kinds of instruments.
People who have had unusually vivid spiritual
experiences sometimes report hearing
heavenly music during them. One recent study
of near-death experiences, for example, found
that eleven percent of these people reported
hearing celestial music. It is not illogical to postulate
that the ancients also had such experiences,
and these experiences may have also
contributed to the notion that heaven was a
musical place.