Science Historian Cracks the 'Plato Code'

Since this is the sort of thing that might become the next esoteric movie mystery, I decided to post it here.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100628111846.htm

And don’t forget Raffaello’s Scuola di Atena, with the color coded robes and gestures of Plato and Aristotle who each carried a significant book, one esoteric and the other exoteric. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_School_of_Athens and http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:La_scuola_di_Atene.jpg

Now that I think about it, let’s make it the next postmodern Neoplatonist esoteric movie mystery. :unamused:

I mean if Leonardo da Vinci could imbue his paintings with geometry, very telling pointed fingers and body language, then why couldn’t anybody? See esoteric da Vinci painting here: http://www.cheltenham-art.com/Leonardo.htm . Durer did it too in Melancholia I with the magic number panel, seen here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melencolia_I

These kinds of unworldly studies into actual worldly figures make great drama and fiction. Nazi decadence shown through a lens taken from the life of Nietzsche and the legend of Faust, mixed in with alchemy and magical musical numbers as shown in Durer turned into the great narrative Doktor Faustus: The Life of the Composer Adrian Leverkuhn As Told by a Friend. So why couldn’t the story of a magical musical Republic turn into The Fractal Follies As Sung by an Ancient Philosopher? No reason at all…

This subject is interesting. This article from The Guardian gives more detail and perspective on the so-called Plato code.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jun/29/plato-mathematical-musical-code

The following paragraph caught my attention.

Even in later western musical thought, the fifth is unsettling. There is a notion called “diabolus in musica” related to the fifth. Thomas Mann used in his book Doktor Faustus: The Life of the Composer Adrian Leverkuhn As Told by a Friend.

http://www.brucetaub.com/bjtnotes.htm

This article on Richard Strauss also deals with the subject.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17592220

It appears that Benjamin Britten used it in his opera “Death in Venice,” based on Thomas Mann’s novel. Link here:

http://www.inst.at/trans/16Nr/07_1/hess-luettich16.htm

It’s very interesting that the effect of music on the senses and emotions can be analogized to mythological figures and symbols. Then virtuosic authors like Mann, who know their music, make it all the more fascinating.

I am told that the sharp 4 /flatted 5 interval is the most common one used in Death Metal, an extreme cacophony of organised mayhem. Many heavy metal songs contain this interval. It’s the most diissonant possible; the frequencies and harmonics evoke an uncomfortable sensation.

Ironically, the Lydian scale is basically a major scale with the sharp 4 thrown in. This can sound Celtic, and quite mystical.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=np9BLJKiw5Y[/youtube]

Metal examples given were:

Black Sabbath – the song Black Sabbath from the first album, cited as probably the greatest example in rock of this interval.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BkhtJM8CqE&feature=PlayList&p=D2D5E66702941479&playnext_from=PL&index=0&playnext=1

Friends/Dancing Days—Led Zeppelin for sharp 4, thought to be more mystical.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWENurv56eo[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1YVQioYgxg[/youtube]

Apparently it was no wonder the church got upset – I’m informed that it was way too deep for their agenda.