Flora Levin explores how and why music was so important to the ancient Greeks. She examines the distinctions that they drew between the theory of music as an art ruled by number and the theory wherein number is held to be ruled by the art of music. These perspectives generated more expansive theories, particularly the idea that the cosmos is a mirror-image of music's structural elements and, conversely, that music by virtue of its cosmic elements - time, motion, and the continuum - is itself a mirror-image of the cosmos. These opposing perspectives gave rise to two opposing schools of thought, the Pythagorean and the Aristoxenian. Levin argues that the clash between these two schools could never be reconciled. Her book shows how the Greeks' appreciation of the profundity of music's interconnections with philosophy, mathematics, and logic led to groundbreaking intellectual achievements that no civilisation has ever matched. Read more ASIN B007NWFVD4 XRay Not Enabled ISBN13 978-0511653148 Edition Illustrated Language English File size 1.8 MB Page Flip Enabled Publisher Cambridge University Press Word Wise Not Enabled Print length 368 pages Accessibility Learn more Screen Reader Supported Publication date April 27, 2009 Enhanced typesetting Enabled