Customer Reviews

Myth of Invariance: The Origin of the Gods, Mathematics and Music from the RG Veda to Plato

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

McClain begins with the interesting thesis: for "ancient" civilizations music was a science through which the intersection between this world and the divine could be expressed and understood. The invariability (or permanence) of music standing in sharp contrast to the impermanence of the world.

In this context music is properly understood as an expression of and the motive for mathematical study. The "key" to unlocking this science comes from a study of the mathematical relationships between various musical notes.

McClain analyzes the Rg Veda, Babylonian, Greek (Plato), and New Testatment (Revelations) using this key, along with ancient definitions of numbers as "male", "female". The point here being that this "Pythagorean" analysis was fairly common and underlies much of literature of these and other cultures.

While McClain's analysis alone is worth at least a "4", I have given this book a lower grade.

The analysis is very detailed and heavily dependent on a knowledge of music, scales, etc. I found it difficult to follow in many parts.

The book's intended audience seems not to be the general public (like me) but rather a more learned audience. My guess is that this work either is his Ph D thesis or was based on it.

It's a pity that the work is not more accessible.

For those with an appropriate background, the book will yield a great deal more than I was able to wring from it.

I must begin by stating that I have known Ernest G. McClain personally for 13 years, and that I have been reading his books and papers for over 26 years. While I am clearly biased in my opinion of him and his work I feel, nevertheless, that my personal contact with him has given me a certain edge over those who may have read his books but who don't know him. His work delves into the lost connections between the musical/mathematical/cosmological theories of the ancient world and the philosophies of the ancient Greeks, the ancient Hebrews, the ancient Hindus, and the ancient Babylonians. In our modern world we use our highest technology to find a unified field "theory of everything". The ancients were no different, except that they used their highest technology to find a "theory of everything" that was based on musical tuning, an ancient sort of "string theory". Make no mistake. McClain's books can be hard to follow, but that's not surprising: his material has been out of date for 2500 years. The Dutch-Canadian musicologist Siemen Terpstra read The Myth of Invariance (MoI) from cover to cover three times before he felt that he understood it. I've found that the rewards can make it worth it. The Torah holds hidden insights, references, and bawdy jokes which Ernest has only recently, at age 87, brought to light. Read the MoI, read The Pythagorean Plato, then get on the Internet, Google BIBAL (sic), and read the works of Ernie's colleagues. You won't be disappointed, you'll be among the avant guard.

The book is EXTREMELY profound. I studied it at length for two years. Made charts, diagrams, a monochord, and even taught a mini course. I received my Masters Degree in Music Theory. All this being the case, I must say, that frustratingly, the Myth of Invariance is one of the most inaccessible books I have ever read ("read" is perhaps not the write word - maybe more like unpacked with the aid of a jackhammer). The mathematical/musical subtlety packed into each sentence requires INTENSE unpacking and study: Babylonian mathematics, logarithms, Ancient Greek tuning theory, reciprocity, "Vedic Lattice Methodogy", astronomical concepts, etc, and all compressed way down: a sentence about this, a sentence about that, a connection to this, that and the other thing all within a paragraph. McClain assumes way too much by way of the reader's prior knowledge, much less trying to follow his stream of consciousness. It's like McClain is sharing a great secret but only provides a skeleton with all other organs implied or hinted at. For me it is a frustrating paradox - a brilliant thesis, yet nearly completely inaccessible (interestingly, McClain refers to Hamlet's Mill, the only other book I would deem equally brilliant, and equally inaccessible!). I cannot rate this book really.
I remember when Stphen Hawking's "A Brief History of Time" was published, and suffered the same problem...brilliant man, bad writer. There was a subsequent book written by another author interpreting Hawking's book. It was well written and really helped. This is what McClain's study REALLY needs - an interpreter. I had studied it back in the 80's, actually attained some mastery but am far too lazy, and have forgotten much of it.
The Myth of Invariance is a work of genius, and will unfortunately remain obscure simply due to its presentation.
loved it...hated it...loved it...

This book is not for the timid. Those of strong faith may find it challenging to encounter the framework by which people once defined their relationship with the Divine. Those, like myself, with less of the advanced math and musical theory training, will find certain proofs simply unreadable. However, accepting those givens as valid, the conclusions drawn from them are exceedingly reasonable and easily understood.

The construction of musical instruments has always been highly calculated. McClain argues that with the generation of stringed instruments came a concept of measurement based on the value of the string. In much the same way that the length of a meter is always the same based on a wave length of light through a prism, a note like "A" will always have the same pitch when the string has the same length. Halve the string you get the same note, "A" one octave higher. Using thirds, fourths, and fifths of a string provide additional harmonies to that string. The implication is that these strings can then be used to define physical measures, which can define volumes effecting other measures - just like the meter does for the metric system. But that is only a minimal implication of his work.

The real push is that these singers/musicians/priests/bards or whatever you want to call them, understood the relationship of the tones, harmonies, and instruments with which they worked. Their understanding of "harmony" led them to think philosophically about the harmony of their band/tribe/clan/community and gods in the same way. Anything that brings overall sickness, weakness, or injury is therefor demonic/evil/dissonant. Their attempt to define the world around them was controlled by their perception of "harmony" and "dissonance", and fundamental to their approach to science, social structure, and explanations of the natural world (many religious texts).

PS. The difficulty in the debate for the religious and scientific is understanding: Existence is real, beyond the limitations of those who seek to define it.

Anyone fascinated with Pythagoras, "The Music Of The Spheres", ancient musical scales, cosmic cycles, vibrations, etc., you've hit pay dirt with this book.

The book as a whole basically makes no sense, since as scholarship it is pretty much completely lacking. However, lurking between the covers is an interesting and orginal idea for constructing scales, which McClain calls a "yantra". A yantra consists of all positive integers below a certain limiting value, which factor into primes only up to a given prime, or "prime limit". For instance, we can take all numbers less than a trillion which are products of 2, 3 and 5. We then reduce this to an octave, and obtain a scale.

McClain argues that this method of scale construction was known to the ancients, who secretly encoded it in various texts. This is claim is not only unsupported by his arguments, it is historically impossible.