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Newent Orchestral
Society Bill's Musical Notes, June, 2010 The Levitator of Stones Ancient myths abound with stories of the amazing power of music. Here is one of them from Greek mythology. Two children, the sons of Zeus and Antiope, called Amphion and Zethos, grew up in secrecy, among the herdsmen on Mount Cithaeron. Amphion, favoured by the winged god, Hermes was presented with the gift of a lyre and devoted much of his time to learning how to play the instrument. His brother, Zethos, a much more practical type taunted and teased his brother for wasting so much time on such a useless, impractical occupation. Zethos represents a personality who is capable and practical, a person who gets things done, whereas Amphion is the intuitive, artistic type who has imagination and is not bound by convention. In classical Greek mythology it is Apollo, the sun god who is the god of music. He is head of the nine Muses and interestingly “muse” and “music” have the same etymological root. The thief, Hermes, is said to have stolen Apollo’s sacred herd and to appease the sun god, when found out, gave him the gift of a lyre which he had invented and made from a slaughtered cow from Apollo’s herd, using the intestines for strings. The lyre was strummed with a plectrum rather than being plucked and was used to accompany the recitations of the Ancient Greeks. Orpheus was the chief among their poets and musicians and it was he who perfected the lyre invented by Hermes. It was said that Orpheus could coax the trees and the rocks to dance. Music in Greece, by the time of Plato, was an integral part of social affairs and activities. Plato complained how music had become debased and had become nothing more than a means for stimulating pleasure. The Greek study of music, of vibrating strings and harmony, was less intended as a means to understanding music as a means for understanding the universe, the movement of the planets and the music of the spheres. Returning to our
story of Amphion, to be patronised by Hermes was an honour indeed and it was the intuitive
Amphion, rather than the practical Zethos who found this favour. “What use is music” asks Zethos,
“when it comes to the practical tasks of life?” As an addendum to
this story, many years ago, I came across "The Dragon Project" in which
researchers investigated the then unexplained phenomena that occurred in and around
ancient standing stones, in particular at the Rollright Stones in Oxfordshire. Their research revealed that the stones emitted
ultrasonic vibrations of considerable strength which varied in a regular pattern according
to the time of year, time of day and phase of the moon.
Dan Robins, a professional chemist and director of the project, concluded that the
stones were acting as transducers and amplifiers of microwave energy coming from the sun
(from "Apollo"). A modern stone
circle was created according to ancient principles and Robins found that the ultrasonic
energy coming from the stones was so high that it damaged his instruments. It is clear that ultrasonic radiation can be emitted by matter and, conversely, can be used to affect it, for example in healing to dissolve kidney stones and to levitate and isolate cancerous cells. That is fact not mythology but perhaps a further speculative thought is worth considering when judging strange descriptions of the world presented to us by the ancients. Perhaps the matter of the world then was different to what it is now, less dense, less formed, more susceptible to manipulation by ultrasound and sound energies, by music even. Bill Anderton, June, 2010 You can receive the Newent
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