The Devil's Music: From Lydian Modes To Heavy Metal

In the Star Wars films the mythic battle between the forces of good and evil is accentuated through the film's score. The contrast between the music associated with the evil empire and that of its heroic opponents is so conspicuous that even those who never saw the films are unlikely to mistake the music of one for the other. The contrast is particularly clear when comparing the motif associated with the young heroic rebel Luke Skywalker with that of his dark imperial foe (and father) Darth Vader. The reason it is so hard to mistake music representing the villains for heroes is that most of us have a predictable emotional response to certain musical tones, which composers count on. But why would that be so? The question is far from trivial. The affective theories offered over the last two thousand years to explain our response to music, and the music that evolved under their influence not only helped shape Western culture, but also influenced the course of history. A major reason for this extraordinary influence is the interconnection made centuries ago between musical affective theory, cosmology, daemons, and ancient concepts of the mind and spirit. From these connections, daemonic music was derived and related philosophies developed that would affect the greatest recurring struggle in Western history, that between authoritarianism and democracy. This book recounts the story of daemonic music's extraordinary and often surprising influence on Western culture and history.

• • Author: S. L. Klein
• • Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
• • Publication Date: Aug 21, 2014
• • Number of Pages: 326 pages
• • Language: English
• • Binding: Paperback
• • ISBN-10: 1489574980
• • ISBN-13: 9781489574985