• "The Harmonic Series As Universal Scientific Constant," 4 pp. (orientation principles) [doc.]
• "Musical Theory and Ancient Cosmology," an introductory essay published in The World And I in 1994, 21 pp.
• "The Forgotten Harmonical Science Of The Bible," 24 pp. [doc.]
• "The Nine-String Akkadian Lyre Of Kilmer, Crocker, and Brown" (Essay in preparation).
• HOMER AS MUSICAL ALLEGORIST (March 2004). A speculative study in Greek reductionism of the purported original length of the Iliad as 13,500 lines, as possible numerical clue to the labyrinth of Crete. (6 pages) [doc.] or [pdf]
• "Mathematical Harmonics in the Book of Jonah," 5 pp [pdf.]. My Jonah studies have been compressed and edited by the old Testament scholar, Duane L. Christensen, founder and director of Bibal Corporation (see www.bibal.net), as an Appendix to his new textbook, READING JONAH IN HEBREW, 2004, and available from: BIBAL Corporation, 845 Bodega Way, Rodeo, CA 94572, telephone 510-377-7000.

Related websites highly recommended.

• Richard Dumbrills's Music and Organology in the Ancient Near East 3500-500 BC (an extensive documentation of ancient instruments).

Related books highly recommended.

• John Bremer: PLATO AND THE FOUNDING OF THE ACADEMY, University Press of America, 2002.
• Jay Kappraff: BEYOND MEASURE: A GUIDED TOUR THROUGH NATURE, MYTH, AND NUMBER, World Scientific, 2002.

Ernest G. McClain is Professor Emeritus of Music, Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, retired since 1982 and living presently in Washington, D.C.. Clarinetist, band director, author of three books mentioned above and more than thirty related essays in various professional journals, his degrees from Oberlin, Northwestern, and Columbia are in Music Education. He chooses to make these newer essays freely accessible to anyone who finds them useful, with appropriate acknowledgement. Particular attention is given to graphics essential to understanding ancient habits of thought, for mythological narrative often proves to be verbal commentary on matrix arithmetic, and many stories are best understood as straightforward musical allegory. Questions are encouraged and will be answered periodically as time and energy permits. It should be understood that the author is neither a mathematician nor a linguist, working mainly from secondary sources available in English translation as an interested observer on current developments in other disciplines. Attention is on arithmetical details not likely to be understood except by musicologists.

The interpretations offered here should be considered speculative adventures of ideas in the spirit fostered by Alfred North Whitehead in his book of that title, for they concern matters which preclude certainty about the intentions of early authors. After more than three decades of work in this area it seems plausible to propose that most of the numerology in ancient mythology÷and all theology in advanced civilizations--is musically inspired and disciplined. Thus interpretation falls into the general category of Pythagorean studies for it pursues a plausible numerical logic based on the quantification of tuning theory. Foundations appear to have been laid down in the fourth millennium BC before the invention of writing, so that for five thousand years musicians have employed essentially the same fossil science. A fairly primitive arithmetic is handled with great ingenuity, ironic humor, endless word play, and considerable arithmetical elegance. Decoding is great fun when it appears convincing, and a pocket calculator takes all the labor out of ancient multiplication, so that many of these adventures become accessible to children. And because much ancient literature has never been studied carefully from a musical perspective, this adventure is just beginning.

email Ernest McClain