Flora Levin explores how and why music was so important to the ancient Greeks. She examines the distinctions that they drew between the theory of music as an art ruled by number and the theory wherein number is held to be ruled by the art of music. These perspectives generated more expansive theories, particularly the idea that the cosmos is a mirror-image of musicís structural elements and, conversely, that music by virtue of its cosmic elements ñ time, motion, and the continuum ñ is itself a mirror-image of the cosmos. These opposing perspectives gave rise to two opposing schools of thought, the Pythagorean and the Aristoxenian. Levin argues that the clash between these two schools could never be reconciled. Her book shows how the Greeksí appreciation of the profundity of musicís interconnections with philosophy, mathematics, and logic led to groundbreaking intellectual achievements that no civilisation has ever matched.

Author: Levin,Flora
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Illustration: N
Language: ENG
Title: Greek Reflections on the Nature of Music
Pages: 00336 (Encrypted PDF)
On Sale: 2009-05-31
SKU-13/ISBN: 9780521518901
Category: History : General