oracular prophecy, and purifying ritual-three different ways of focusing the healing forces of nature upon the body and the mind (70).
Cunha 05
In this attempt, music should have three benefits. “First: regulation, the restoring of the soul and / or body to a state of equilibrium… Second: the creation of a sensation of pleasure through movement, and the third is the inducing of an ecstatic experience (catharsis) which purges the soul of emotional conflict expelling evil spirits”(70). And music is described as a specific language that can communicate directly from performer to listener: it penetrates the body in the form of air, pressure, meaning, and soul (71). Another interesting point to incorporate the body of this essay, is transcience. As Rowell explains, the most striking paradox in the myth is that this incredibly powerful force is also infinitely perishable, and forever in danger of being lost (73).
“Concepts about harmony are at once the most abstract and the most grandiose of all musical metaphors”(77).
The association with the myths and the instruments they play, is very interesting because some of them can be prototypes of later string instruments, symbolizing the principles of Apollo – harmony, formal clarity, reason, moderation, and objectivity. An example of this progress is the “ch’in”, the most respected of Chinese instruments, considered a symbol of harmony. Even bells have been cited in so many literary works, besides flute (it was invented by Mercury) 02, which is the most symbolic of all musical instruments (81). Percussion symbolism appears in such an assortment of shapes, sizes, materials, and locations that generalization becomes impossible. And the last