<div id="LayerE10" style="visibility: visible; overflow: visible; z-index:0; left:10px; top:5px; position:absolute; "><?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> <head> <!-- ======================================================= --> <!-- Created by AbiWord, a free, Open Source wordprocessor. --> <!-- For more information visit http://www.abisource.com. --> <!-- ======================================================= --> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;charset=UTF-8" /> <title>Harmonics & Language.html</title> <style type="text/css"><!-- #toc, .toc, .mw-warning { border: 1px solid #aaa; background-color: #f9f9f9; padding: 5px; font-size: 95%; } #toc h2, .toc h2 { display: inline; border: none; padding: 0; font-size: 100%; font-weight: bold; } #toc #toctitle, .toc #toctitle, #toc .toctitle, .toc .toctitle { text-align: center; } #toc ul, .toc ul { list-style-type: none; list-style-image: none; margin-left: 0; padding-left: 0; text-align: left; } #toc ul ul, .toc ul ul { margin: 0 0 0 2em; } #toc .toctoggle, .toc .toctoggle { font-size: 94%; }@media print, projection, embossed { body { padding-top:1.0000in; padding-bottom:1.0000in; padding-left:1.2500in; padding-right:1.2500in; } } body { text-indent:0in; text-align:left; font-weight:normal; text-decoration:none; font-variant:normal; color:#000000; font-size:12pt; font-style:normal; widows:2; font-family:'Times New Roman'; } table { } td { border-collapse:collapse; text-align:left; vertical-align:top; } p, h1, h2, h3, li { color:#000000; font-family:'Times New Roman'; font-size:12pt; text-align:left; vertical-align:normal; } *.footnote_text { font-size:10pt; } *.footnote_reference { font-size:10pt; vertical-align:super; } --></style> </head> <body> <div> <div style="text-align: left;" dir="ltr"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;" lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US"> <table style="border-collapse: collapse;" width="600" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" bordercolor="#000000" border="0"><tbody><tr><td width="100%" valign="top"> <div> <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;" lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">Language</span> <p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US"> In akróasis we attribute a special significance language. We have seen that the ancient Greeks, upon whom all our Western culture is built, were fully aware of the harmonics of language and its elements: word, syllable, letter, grammar, and then the rhythms, meters, etc.-a knowledge that has been completely lost in this concrete sense in modern times. Despite this, language remains a phenomenon of the greatest significance for us: through ear and mouth, humans give and receive immaterial things; by means of the “tone,” therefore acoustically, we communicate all our thoughts and aspirations; in short, it is what makes us human. Since this is not entirely self-evident-because we could quite easily think of other means of communication, such as sign language-and since, furthermore, language is “at home,” so to speak, in the house of harmonics, i.e. its actual native rights are there-the phenomenon of speech gains a much deeper foundation through this than it could have if it were merely isolated, standing alone. Through the portal of akróasis, language enters the toning foundations of the world; only in front of this universal background is its existence understandable at all. Many great modern scholars and philosophers of language have been aware of this background; the fact that that they did not perform specifically harmonic “linguistic” investigations in the manner of the Classical Greeks is irrelevant. From the wealth of examples I will give only a few.</span></p> <p style="text-align: left;" dir="ltr"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;" lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">Language and Writing</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US"> From the viewpoint of akróasis, a special significance can also be seen in the connection between language and writing. As will be explained later, the specific proportions of numbers that contain the tone-ratios make it possible to transpose the acoustic into the optic. If we understand this possibility, which is universally immanent in all tonal forms, then we can understand the connection of the written and spoken word in a more fundamental, categorical way. This can explain why peoples who are highly sensitive to the acoustics of language-such as the Chinese-have writing of such a great artistic quality, meaning much more to them than mere symbols for concepts. Their characters and concepts come from a common center; the spirit entices visual images from the writing hand, which are then acoustically made sensory in various ways. Concept, written character, and word are brought to a marvelous synthesis by means of the sense of touch of the writing hand, where they stand unique in human history. Somehow, this synthesis naturally applies to every fixing of language, whereby the optic and the acoustic often appear with a direct external connection, even applicable to individual letters: think of the vowel “o,” which in European languages has exactly the form that our mouth uses for its realization.</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US"> On Chinese writing, Lin Tsiu-sen, in </span><span style="font-style: italic;" lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">China und Japan</span><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">,</span><span class="footnote_reference" id="footnote_ref-1"><a href="#footnote_anchor-1">1</a></span><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US"> writes: “The usage of Chinese writing means more than that of just any writing, because the Chinese characters were originally pictures, like hieroglyphs ... soon a development began in them that allowed Chinese writing to become what it is now: the basic images were condensed to 214 roots or radicals, and from them the individual signs were </span><span style="font-style: italic;" lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">composed</span><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">, in the full sense of this word. Just as for the ear, a </span><span style="font-style: italic;" lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">mood</span><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US"> emerges in the listener through a </span><span style="font-style: italic;" lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">musical phrase</span><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">, so an </span><span style="font-style: italic;" lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">idea </span><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">emerges in the reader through the </span><span style="font-style: italic;" lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">radical phrase</span><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">. Unlike the melody, which is made the same for all time by the composer, the Chinese character presents an ever richer and richer idea.”</span></p> <p style="text-align: left;" dir="ltr"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;" lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">Word and Language</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US"> To summarize the examples history offers us of the akróasis of words and language, we can say: it is no coincidence that even in ancient times, religious cults used not only words, but also acoustically augmented speech, emphatic pronunciation, and hymns, and that the historical awakening of humanity is concentrated in the ballads and songs of the heroic ages. </span><span style="font-style: italic;" lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">Rigveda</span><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US"> means a collection of songs; the Homeric epics were originally recited, sung; and even in the Middle Ages the Nordic bards sang ballads of love and heroism. It is no coincidence that the Greeks used </span><span style="font-style: italic;" lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">logos</span><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US"> as a common term for word, speech, responsibility, and consciousness, nor that the term “person,” “personal,” as an expression for the human individual, is derived originally from the Latin </span><span style="font-style: italic;" lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">personare</span><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US"> = to “sound through,” call, proclaim. Nor is it a coincidence that in the German language, </span><span style="font-style: italic;" lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">Vernunft</span><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US"> [consciousness] comes from </span><span style="font-style: italic;" lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">vernehmen</span><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US"> [to hear], </span><span style="font-style: italic;" lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">Verantwortung</span><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US"> [responsibility] from </span><span style="font-style: italic;" lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">verantworten</span><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US"> [to answer], </span><span style="font-style: italic;" lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">Gehören </span><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">[to belong] from </span><span style="font-style: italic;" lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">ge-hören</span><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US"> [</span><span style="font-style: italic;" lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">hören =</span><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US"> hear], and </span><span style="font-style: italic;" lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">Beruf</span><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">, </span><span style="font-style: italic;" lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">Berufung</span><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US"> [profession] from </span><span style="font-style: italic;" lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">be-rufen</span><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US"> [</span><span style="font-style: italic;" lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">rufen</span><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US"> = to call]. At the root of all these concepts is the acoustic, the auditory in its broadest and deepest sense. We have become deaf to the spiritual background of these symbols, which speak such a clear language, precisely because the familiarity of the daily use of these concepts has made us unaware of the unfamiliarity of their actual meaning.</span><span class="footnote_reference" id="footnote_ref-2"><a href="#footnote_anchor-2">2</a></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US"> As a conclusion to this section, we will let akróasis speak to us from a few more examples of modern poetry. We must eschew musical examples, since the great names of music will be familiar to every reader, and a proper representation of them, at least for most people, is only possible through hearing.</span></p> <p style="text-align: left;" dir="ltr"><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US"><br /> </span></p> <p style="text-align: left;" dir="ltr"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;" lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">Dante</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US"> The strict architectonics of the </span><span style="font-style: italic;" lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">Divine Comedy</span><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US"> shows Dante's knowledge of mysterious Pythagorean wisdom. “He holds tightly to numbers, so as not to fall into the divine darkness that hastens in upon him.”</span><span class="footnote_reference" id="footnote_ref-3"><a href="#footnote_anchor-3">3</a></span><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US"> A verse of </span><span style="font-style: italic;" lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">Purgatorio,</span><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US"> 30, 92 [Longfellow translation] reads:</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; margin-left: 0.5194in;" dir="ltr"><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">“Before the song of those who sing for ever</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; margin-left: 0.5194in;" dir="ltr"><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">After the music of the eternal spheres.”</span></p> <p style="text-align: left;" dir="ltr"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;" lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US"><br /> Shakespeare</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US"> Shakespeare's Lorenzo repeats this tone in </span><span style="font-style: italic;" lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">The Merchant of Venice</span><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US"> [Act V, Scene I, 58]:</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; margin-left: 0.5194in;" dir="ltr"><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">“Look, how the floor of heaven</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; margin-left: 0.5194in;" dir="ltr"><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold:</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; margin-left: 0.5194in;" dir="ltr"><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; margin-left: 0.5194in;" dir="ltr"><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">But in his motion like an angel sings,</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; margin-left: 0.5194in;" dir="ltr"><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins;</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; margin-left: 0.5194in;" dir="ltr"><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">Such harmony is in immortal souls;</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; margin-left: 0.5194in;" dir="ltr"><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">But, whilst this muddy vesture of decay</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; margin-left: 0.5194in;" dir="ltr"><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it.”</span></p> <p style="text-align: left;" dir="ltr"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;" lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">Goethe</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US"> This section would not be complete were we not to consider the great monument that Goethe, the seer and observer, has built to akróasis. The prologue in heaven to </span><span style="font-style: italic;" lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">Faust</span><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US"> begins with the words of Raphael [George Madison Priest translation]:</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; margin-left: 0.5194in;" dir="ltr"><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">“The sun intones, in ancient tourney</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; margin-left: 0.5194in;" dir="ltr"><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">With brother-spheres, a rival song,</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; margin-left: 0.5194in;" dir="ltr"><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">Fulfilling its predestined journey,</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; margin-left: 0.5194in;" dir="ltr"><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">With march of thunder moves along.</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; margin-left: 0.5194in;" dir="ltr"><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">Its aspect gives the angels power,</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; margin-left: 0.5194in;" dir="ltr"><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">Though none can ever solve its ways;</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; margin-left: 0.5194in;" dir="ltr"><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">The lofty works beyond us tower,</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; margin-left: 0.5194in;" dir="ltr"><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">Sublime as on the first of days.”</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">And at the beginning of Act 1 of </span><span style="font-style: italic;" lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">Faust </span><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">II, “A tremendous tumult announces the approach of the sun”:</span></p> <p style="text-align: left;" dir="ltr"><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">Ariel: “Hark! The storm of hours is nearing!</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; margin-left: 0.5194in;" dir="ltr"><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">Sounding loud to spirit-hearing,</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; margin-left: 0.5194in;" dir="ltr"><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">Is the new-born day appearing.</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; margin-left: 0.5194in;" dir="ltr"><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">Rocky portals grate and shatter,</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; margin-left: 0.5194in;" dir="ltr"><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">Phoebus' wheels roll forth and clatter.</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; margin-left: 0.5194in;" dir="ltr"><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">What a tumult Light brings near!</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; margin-left: 0.5194in;" dir="ltr"><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">Trumpets, trombones are resounding,</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; margin-left: 0.5194in;" dir="ltr"><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">Eyes are blinking, ears astounding;</span></p> <p style="text-align: left; margin-left: 0.5194in;" dir="ltr"><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">The unheard ye shall not hear.”</span></p> <p> </p> <div> <p style="text-align: left;" class="footnote_text" awml:style="Footnote Text" dir="ltr"><span class="footnote_reference" id="footnote_anchor-1"><a href="#footnote_ref-1">1</a></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US"> Zürich, 1944, vol. I, pp. 71-72.</span></p> <p style="text-align: left;" class="footnote_text" awml:style="Footnote Text" dir="ltr"><span class="footnote_reference" id="footnote_anchor-2"><a href="#footnote_ref-2">2</a></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US"> Recently, scholarship appears to have become more aware of the tonal in word and language. Maria Schubinger, Anglicist at the University of Basel, referred, in a lecture in Zürich, to the significance of the “melody of speech,” whose study is still in its early stages. Many difficulties in interpreting old texts come from the fact that only the sound of the word has come down to us, and not the melody of the speech (Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 22.4.1944).</span></p> <p><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US"><br /> Admittedly, this is only one problem of interest to future harmonic scholars of language, and probably not the most important.</span></p> <p style="text-align: left;" class="footnote_text" awml:style="Footnote Text" dir="ltr"><span class="footnote_reference" id="footnote_anchor-3"><a href="#footnote_ref-3">3</a></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US"> St. Augustine, op. cit., p. 203.</span></p> </div></div></td></tr></tbody></table> </span></div> <div style="text-align: left;" dir="ltr"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;" lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US"></span></div></div> </body> </html></div>
History of Harmonics
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