The Greek Myths

[Kerry Uchida <kerry@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I was just reading "The Soundscape, Our Sonic
Environment and the Tuning of the World" by
R.Murray Schaffer.  ISBN 0-89281-455-1

I came across a section that relates to
the "emotion" thread.  Thought I'd pass it
on:

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There are two basic ideas of what music is
or ought to be.  They may be seen most
clearly in two Greek myths dealing with the
origin of music.  Pindar's twelfth Pythian Ode
tells how the art of aulos playing was invented
by Athena when, after the beheading of Medusa,
she was touched by the heart-rending cries of
Medusa's sisters and created a special 'nomos'
in their honor.  In a Homeric hymn to Hermes
an alternative orgin is mentioned.  The lyre is
said to have been invented by Hermes when
he surmised that the shell of the turtle, if used
as a body of resonance, could produce sound.

In the first of these myths music arises as subjective
emotion; in the second it arises with the discovery
of sonic properties in the materials of the universe.
These are the cornerstones on which all subsequent
theories of music are founded.
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--
Kerry Uchida

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