About three years (!!!) ago, I mentioned in passing that I was co-editing a volume of papers in tribute to (and memory of) a friend and mentor, Ernest G. McClain.
Ernest would have turned 100 years old today, so it is with great pleasure and some relief, mostly in that order, that today I am able to announce the book's publication.
Music and Deep Memory: Speculations in Ancient Mathematics, Tuning, and Tradition. In Memoriam Ernest G. McClain
Table of Contents:
J. Le Mee: The Challenge of Abul Wafa
L. Crickmore: Castlerigg: Stone or Tone Circle?
J. Kappraff: Ancient Harmonic Law
S. Reichart & V. Ramalingam: Three Heptagonal Sacred Places
P. Halldórsson: Pattern of Settlements paced from 1-9
A. Bulckens: The Metonic Cycle of the Parthenon
J. Kappraff and E. McClain: The Proportional System of the Parthenon
R. Heath: The Geodetic and Musicological Significance of the Shorter Length of the Parthenon
R. Heath: Ernest McClain’s Musicological Interpretation of Ancient Texts
J. Bremer: The Opening of Plato’s Polity
B. Carr: Ontology Inside-Out
B. Babich: The Hallelujah Effect
P. Dello: McClain’s Matrices
R. Dumbrill: Seven? Yes -- but ...
H. B. Schatz: Through the Eyes of Plato
G. Turchetto: Memories of Ernest G. McClain
The process has been a slow labor of love; I have leanred a great deal and I thank everyone who has assisted for their help, and everyone who watched and wondered for their great patience. never again will I complain of the slow pace of publication.
The book is also now generally available for purchase here as a print book, and here as ebook. Even for an academic-type volume (though not a university press) it is not a cheap book (illustrations and graphics in color get pricey). And I know there must still be errors in it, because I found some more every single time I looked. But I am proud of the book, and I remember that McClain's fundamental lesson was simply drawing the conclusions from the fact that tuning a instrument perfectly is an exercise in futility. Every human project is a compromise with imperfection.
