SERGEI M EISENSTEIN

In later mythology, Lei Kung, the Duke of Thunder, held a cluster of drums, while another
spiritofthunderstoodonfivedrums.
In the Dionysos cult the “bullroarer” or “konos” was used to make this sound, a pointed
ovoid of wood or bone, whirled at the end of a long cord which had been invented by the
ancestors10.000years before,intheKybelecultdrumswereimportant.
Tigersorsimilargreatfelines,wereananimalattributebecausetheirroarswereequivalentto
the thunder, also bears with their thunderous growls, and elephants (a common figure on
Indus valley seals) with their trumpeting. An Indus valley amulet shows a man playing a
drum standing before a tiger as if making explicit the animal’s significance. Thunder expresses
the Yin earth-energy, and the rattle would have made the sound of the other Yin
agency,thewindaswouldthewhistle…”
Thus:
“The very first ritual”* in sounds consists of two sonic elements representing in
sounds the element of the “roaring” of thunder (drums*) and the element of
“whistling”ofwind(whistle*).
Theseareexpressedbythedrumandthewhistle(asdoestherattle*).
Here we have the antecedent for the long-established groups of instruments:
percussionandwind–fromthepointofviewoforchestration.
But here we also have the long-established division of musical structure into accompaniment
(percussion par excellence* [in French]) and melody (wind instrumentsparexcellence*)–fromthepointofviewofmusicalstructure.
4
À noter* [in French: To be noted] that both the structure of the orchestra and the
structureofmusicitself,comefromtheverysameantecedentofreflectingreality
initsmostimpressivesonicmanifestations–innaturalphenomena.
And the most distinct immediate sounds of nature itself are really the howling
andwhistlingofthewindandtheroaringofthunder.
“The babbling brook”, “the rustling leaves” and so on are less “fundamental” in
theirpowertoprovokeimitation. 5
But not to forget that “the babbling brook” is the most beloved music... of the
Uzbek. 6
And it is beloved as the aestheticization of the vital, essential, “strength” of
water,whichensuresgrowth.
Therefore, the “aesthetic pleasure of the babbling” of the irrigation canal is a
conditionedreflextothesecuringoflifeforthecanalpossessor.
revelation in storm and thunder 209