There's Music in You...

There's Music in You!

It's funny where a web search can take you. You start to look for one small thing, one tiny fact or piece of information that you need verified, and all of a sudden, after hours and hours of searching, you stumble upon a whole new subject that you weren't even aware you were interested in. The thing you were looking for in the beginning....forget about it! No longer even matters, for you've found something that is a lot more interesting to research or explore.

That happened to me this week. I was looking for one little thing, one small confirmation of a fact, and found something much more interesting and ... well, kinda a bit amazing to think about.

It started with Plato's works The Republic and then traveled back farther in time to Pythagoras and comes back to the present again.. all within a few short hours of perusing the net. And I wanted to share what I found... hopefully you find it as interesting as I did.

We'll start with Plato's works, The Republic. I wanted to find the PDF translation and save it for future reference. So that's what I typed into the Google search bar. And while searching the results I saw a link to "the Plato code"... I went there instead. Apparently Plato encoded the Greek musical scale into his writing. Used it to make his words "sound" better. An excerpt from the article:

This regular pattern represented the twelve notes of a Greek musical scale. Some notes were harmonic, others dissonant. At the locations of the harmonic notes he described sounds associated with love or laughter, while the locations of dissonant notes were marked with screeching sounds or war or death. This musical code was key to cracking Plato’s entire symbolic system.

Dr Kennedy, a researcher in the Center for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine, says: “As we read his books, our emotions follow the ups and downs of a musical scale. Plato plays his readers like musical instruments.”

I looked further into it. He was following the teaching of Pythagoras, the music of the spheres, and how everything has a musical/mathematical structure. Even the planets and stars...the universe. Plato tried to make his writing follow the same principle and according to the research center for the history of science, he achieved success.


One of the other search results was this. An article that posits that music can hold clues about human history and evolution. Within it, it explains how a team of scientists used mitochondrial DNA and folk music to map the changes and convergence of nine indigenous tribes. The thought that the two could be linked.. music and DNA.

Brown's research team used a comparison between the mitochondrial DNA and the folk music of nine indigenous populations of Taiwan to show that each tells a similar story about the ways those populations have changed and converged over the last 6,000 years.

Mitochondrial DNA changes at a predictable rate, acting as an evolutionary clock that makes it ideal for such comparisons .

The group included researchers from Tokyo University of the Arts, the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany and China Medical University and Mackay Memorial Hospital, both in Taiwan. Their results are published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, one of the society's biological journals.

The researchers analyzed the structures of 220 Taiwanese choral songs recorded since the 1940s. They compared the results with DNA samples taken from 1,050 subjects from different parts of the island and found that the musical results shared significant similarities to the genetic results when it came to tracking changes over thousands of years.

And that search lead me to this one... An amazing idea .. . taking the DNA code from each individual and creating music from it. How beautiful is that? And these people are not alone in their thinking. There are several other websites that have/are doing the same thing. And also here...

When Francis Crick and James Watson unraveled the structure of the DNA molecule more than a quarter of a century ago, little did they know that the genetic blueprint for life also might serve as a source of music. Not just any music--but melodies that can be likened to the baroque and romantic periods and to austere dissonances reminiscent of 20th-Century composer Igor Stravinsky.

And if you don't think it's beautiful.. here's a video of one of the songs made from DNA.




Just thought some might find this interesting.. and magical. I now have more questions than answers ... again. But, at least I know that I am made of music, and I hope it sounds beautiful....

Thanks for reading.

blend57

Your DNA song
Plato's The Republic PDF
Complete Pythagoras
Ancient Human History encoded into Music
Scientists Discover Genetic Formula for Music

Brilliant. I can't wait to look further into this. Thanks for your findings here.

I read Plato's Republic and remember wondering if it was serious or a very clever joke. It was a bit like a Monty Python sketch. I'll go back to it tonight as part of your gift of research.

Fascinating stuff. God is the great composer and his work is within every one of us.

S&F

a reply to: and14263

Is a very interesting concept. But I am unsure if it is scientifically sound. The whole process behind it.. assigning the 22 amino acids a musical note. Would be interesting to see/hear all the music they have made from each person who has contributed their DNA. If it is as rare and unique as we are as individuals.

Regarding Plato's works: Some websites made it sound as though all his writings were coded with the twelve notes of the Greek musical scale. Most mentioned The Republic as being the only one. So, I am confused as to whether they found the code in all his writings.

There are so many different ideas and threads that could be created about this...questions that could be addressed and answers revealed. Was hard to try to shorten them down to one post. So, thank you for reading it and I'm glad you found something within it of interest.


a reply to: 3NL1GHT3N3D1

I found it to be quite fascinating. Especially the way we've come full circle. Pythagoras was the first to conceive the idea/thought and we let it drift away until recently. I wonder if it is because we just recently had the technology to pursue it or if we just recently discovered the value in it. Did the ones who invented the process know about the teachings of Pythagoras? Or did they just "discover" the process on their own. Again, a lot of unanswered questions and thoughts for me.

Thanks for reading and responding. I appreciate it very much.

blend57

a reply to: blend57

Music and song is connected deep into our soul, you can move mountains that is set in place by playing a special kind of tone..

a reply to: blend57

I'm pretty sure the reason we even like music is because it resonates or harmonizes with how we emotional conceive sounds.

Thus a really good song can amplify emotions, which is what we are kind of seeking by listening to music - we want to feel/conceive good forces.

I think all musicians, and artists, subconsciously translate their will/desire/forces into art - as it is the very thing we all translate (even these words here are how I conceive my will/forces.)

And I think dna is most definitely conceptualized feels or how we translate the conception of our bodily forces, which is to be passed on to our offspring. (What is good conception of forces is passed on - the means of reproducing good awareness is passed on.)

But whether or not all of dna is musical, I don't know. I think probably part of it could very well be but there is also all the other qualia we have sensory conception of. (Color, sound, taste, etc.) But I mean, who knows. Maybe?



Edit: Do you have a good source for the plato code that shows how to use it? an instructional video, perhaps?

I have had deep interest in musical harmony for quite some time.
I have studied and experimented with just about every scale imaginable.
I don't need a tuner to tune my guitar. For some odd reason I can hear, in my head, and hum an F# to use like a tuning fork.
I usually just think of the first note in the "Crazy Train" riff. I'm dead on every time.

Fascinating and so beautiful! I have never heard of this! Always heard we were made from stars and now we are made of music. We are stars and music? Now that is magical!

a reply to: AnneNancy

I do remember reading somewhere... a long time ago that there was a staff the Egyptians had that was used to raise the pyramids. It was harmonically tuned to a certain frequency and glowed blue? Used in conjunction with a word they were able to raise the pyramids from the very Earth upon the lay line grid. I dunno.. probably was a work of fiction and I remembered it because it was a very creative work of fiction..lol. But still a pretty neat idea...music and words used to move mountains.

a reply to: Bleeeeep

Yep..totally get what your saying. The right song/music can bring you out of depression or put you into it. Your emotions kind of flow with the music you choose to listen to.

I found some other pieces of art that had music in them while I was searching through all this.. a couple of paintings mainly. Knowing that art is really a piece of the artist on view for display/interpretation... I could believe that we have left the music within each piece.. the two paintings I've found are here and here. One is obvious and one not so obvious.

It is explained in one of the articles how they used the musical scale to crack the code in Plato's The Republic, but I have not researched it any further then that....

a reply to: skunkape23

Not an expert on this subject matter or anything.. but was just thinking as I read your post that it would make sense that musicians were a bit more "in tune" with their music/DNA.. lol. very cool to know their are some who can tune by ear still.

a reply to: Night Star

Is kinda magical isn't it? To know that you are made of stardust and music...just changes the way you view yourself a bit. Knowing you're a beautiful song just waiting to be discovered. ...

Thanks everyone for adding your thoughts. I appreciate it.

blend57

a reply to: blend57
Wow. Thank you for sharing!

When I first heard it from Joseph Farrell that we can read Plato's Republic as a musical treatise it blew my mind... but I'm too lazy to check it out and I get easily distracted when searching the net. I've been searching for my copy of The Republic and I still haven't found it yet.

Remember what Tesla said “If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration.” or Einstein's “If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music.” Makes sense doesn't it and don't we all have more questions than answers?

Leonard Bernstein's The Unanswered Question: Six Talks at Harvard, was said to be an attempt to transcribe poetry, linguistics and physics into music.

Here's the outline of the 1973 lectures:
1. Musical Phonology
2. Musical Syntax
3. Musical Semantics
4. The Delights & Dangers of Ambiguity
5. The XXth Century Crisis
6. The Poetry Of Earth

On that note, pardon the pun, I leave you with...

a reply to: MaxTamesSiva

Thanks for the link and the song! I am anxious to listen to the lectures. Also I was unaware that there was a tradition surrounding them. The Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry position at Harvard. Kind of interesting to read about it. The people who participated T.S. Eliot, e.e. Cummings, Robert Frost.. all invited to stay on campus and give a series of lectures. That information alone has peaked my interest in this.

I have to get to work.. but wanted you to know that I saw your response and am very grateful for the information/thoughts you shared.

thank you!
blend57

a reply to: blend57

I remember discovering this years ago but didn't think much of it at the time.

(too much doom & gloom poisoning my mind in those days)

I had a bit of a search for the notes and found Pythagorean tuning.

Then there it was, the Perfect fifth a classic Rock Guitar cord.

Add one more note and you get a Power chord.

Wow this is so cool, Metal, no wonder I can't get away from these cords.

Looks like it is true,,, Rock & roll will never die.

I'm a _______ and my people make awesome music. They orchestrate many instruments and add my most favorite piece of all. The flute. They are legends in their craft.
Which brings me to my point... what instruments can we as ATSians find/use to sing/play the song(s) of our time. It's time our DNA/Fathers heard it sung by us. Yay!

S&F&S...