By Timothy Smith

I offer reviews, not critique! Perhaps you'll find these books as enjoyable & useful as I have.

The Arithmetic of Listening: Tuning Theory & History for the Impractical Musician
Kyle Gann; University of Illinois Press

Kyle Gann writes: "...the truth is that tuning is the secret lens through which the history of music falls into focus. Changes in tuning theory explains why certain chords have been considered dissonant in some eras, consonant in others. Tuning explains why some keys have been commonly used, others avoided. ...why different keys suggested...different colors. Tuning lies at the core of divergences in worldview between musics of Asia and Africa." Additionally, tuning "...helps explain the psychological effects of music...is the great background force determining what kind of music gets made…Despite all of this, no other issue is so ignored..."

Although written primarily for musicians, this book could certainly be of interest to anyone who enjoys music (or Arithmetic!), and knows a bit of music terminology.

Numbers, writes Mr. Gann "...are eternal, and unvarying from culture to culture, eon to eon...fifty million years from now, on whatever planet may then posses intelligent life, two tones vibrating at a ratio of three to two will still sound what would have sounded to us like a perfect fifth."

Sacred Geometry for Artists, Dreamers, and Philosophers: Secrets of Harmonic Creation
John Oscar Lieben; Inner Traditions

The numbers that underlie music (see above!), can also be found in Art, Architecture, Botany, Cosmology, Religion and much else. This book explores and illustrates many of these Geometric forms, in an accessible and enjoyable fashion. Moreover, the author is keen to emphasize the many practical applications that are possible in virtually any creative endeavor. A drawing, a garden, a lyric, a dance, anything born of the imagination might employ geometry of this sort. Needless-to-say, philosophy plays a significant part here, as well, so the armchair
philosopher will find plenty to ruminate upon.

Should you find yourself wishing to dig deeper, there are plenty of quotations, notes, and a useful Bibliography to get you started.

The Dawning Moon of Mind: Unlocking the Pyramid Texts
Susan Brind Morrow; Farrah, Straus and Giroux

"Hieroglyphs are simple. The multiplicity unfolds in the meaning. Egyptology has reversed this, making it seem as though hieroglyphs themselves are alien, hence complicated and inaccessible, and the meaning flat, hence lifeless and irrelevant."

"What has been missed is that hieroglyphs are based on astute readings of the physical world. They have the timeless shine of the real."

This gem of a book encompasses Archeology, Classical literature, Linguistics, Astronomy, Religion, and especially, the sound and sense of Poetry.

"Alchemy, the Egyptian method, turns out to be neither metallurgy nor a range of symbols generated by a universal unconscious mind. Alchemy is a consciously created system of coding...This method of coding, of hiding and probing the dimensions of profound realizations in elaborate constructions of words, is the origin of poetry."

"The purpose in writing this book is to bring the language and literature of Egypt
out of obscurity and into the land of the living."

This fascinating work is certainly most worthy of your attention!

Written by Tim Smith Host of WUSB’s Show Megapolitan Tuesdays 8-10am.