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Akroasis: The Theory of World Harmonics
- GenresMusic
177 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 1970
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September 1, 2021
I went into this book expecting some far out mid-twentieth century ideas that would be on par with some of the wildest strains of Renaissance mysticism. After all, what else should I have taken from a subtitle like "The Theory of World Harmonics"?
I think it's safe to say that the ideas in this book are fairly out there. But, at the same time, they came across as somewhat grounded and even sensible. Of course, to me, once fractions come into music theory and discussions of octaves and triads break out, I might as well be trying to puzzle out John Dee's angelic script. Putting music and musical ideas into words other than tonally shifting "boop"s or "doot"s has just never made much sense to me.
And yet, after reading this book I felt a little compelled to take up the violin I'd bought over a decade ago, find some online tutorials, and try to start playing again. Some of those musical terms started to make sense to me. I can't say I fully grasp everything Kayser had to say about harmonics, but at the heart of his ideas was something I'd encountered in other books of theory from around the same time.
This is the idea that something is missing from modern life. Not the most groundbreaking thought, I know, but still.
For Kayser what is missing is the latter half of the pair of measure and value. With the former being his term for the physical or quantifiability and the latter for concepts like meaning or quality, I found myself harmonizing with what I understood to be the very core of this book's thesis: that modern life (back in the 1970s!) was largely ignoring meaning in favour of accumulating more and more stuff. A common enough thought in the 20th century, sure, but Kayser at least acknowledges that his idea isn't to go back to some imagined former ideal but instead to try to meld aspects of the ancient Mediterranean approach to life as something enriched with myth and meaning and modern life's physical comforts and conveniences.
At least, that's what I ultimately took from this book in my own slow digestion of its contents.
Overall, this book fit neatly into the curio side of what I was expecting when I found it in a used book shop. But, at least from where I am now as I write this review, the book failed to meet my expectations for wild, far out ideas more or less locked into its own time. Instead it sidestepped those expectations and delivered a quietly assured perspective on what's missing in modern life based on observations of a single plucked string from the ancient and modern worlds.
I think it's safe to say that the ideas in this book are fairly out there. But, at the same time, they came across as somewhat grounded and even sensible. Of course, to me, once fractions come into music theory and discussions of octaves and triads break out, I might as well be trying to puzzle out John Dee's angelic script. Putting music and musical ideas into words other than tonally shifting "boop"s or "doot"s has just never made much sense to me.
And yet, after reading this book I felt a little compelled to take up the violin I'd bought over a decade ago, find some online tutorials, and try to start playing again. Some of those musical terms started to make sense to me. I can't say I fully grasp everything Kayser had to say about harmonics, but at the heart of his ideas was something I'd encountered in other books of theory from around the same time.
This is the idea that something is missing from modern life. Not the most groundbreaking thought, I know, but still.
For Kayser what is missing is the latter half of the pair of measure and value. With the former being his term for the physical or quantifiability and the latter for concepts like meaning or quality, I found myself harmonizing with what I understood to be the very core of this book's thesis: that modern life (back in the 1970s!) was largely ignoring meaning in favour of accumulating more and more stuff. A common enough thought in the 20th century, sure, but Kayser at least acknowledges that his idea isn't to go back to some imagined former ideal but instead to try to meld aspects of the ancient Mediterranean approach to life as something enriched with myth and meaning and modern life's physical comforts and conveniences.
At least, that's what I ultimately took from this book in my own slow digestion of its contents.
Overall, this book fit neatly into the curio side of what I was expecting when I found it in a used book shop. But, at least from where I am now as I write this review, the book failed to meet my expectations for wild, far out ideas more or less locked into its own time. Instead it sidestepped those expectations and delivered a quietly assured perspective on what's missing in modern life based on observations of a single plucked string from the ancient and modern worlds.
Displaying 1 of 1 review