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Notes -
I was about to write pretty much the same thing but you wrote it better. So I’ll just add: poetry is the sub-stimuli and music is the super-stimuli; lyrical music is poetry with greater specification of emotion. The decline of poetry coincides with greater availability of music, though interestingly it’s speculated that the ancient poets were accompanied by music. And from the Smiths:
This can be read one hundred ways, but the music and tone specifies it minutely.
I agree, it seems that in most societies, especially pre-literate ones, the line between oral poetry and song is blurry or non-existent.
Framing it as sub and super-stimuli is precisely what I was getting at, and they don't need to be perfect substitutes for that to count.
Anyway, here's an example of a recitation of the Epic of Gilgamesh with period instruments, and while it doesn't claim to be anything but informed speculation, just tell me it isn't so much better than just reading it or reciting it:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=QUcTsFe1PVs?si=js1l0zJerTuGmZxL
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