Palestrina:

(1525-1594) Italian Renaissance composer of sacred music, best-known 16th-century representative of the Roman School of musical composition; had lasting influence on the development of church music, and his work has often been seen as the culmination of Renaissance polyphony.

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Wagner: 

(1813-1883) German composer, theatre director, polemicist & conductor, known chiefly for his operas, writing both the libretto and the music.  He revolutionised opera through his concept of the "total work of art", synthesizing the poetic, visual, musical & dramatic arts (music subsidiary to drama).  He realized his ideas most fully in the 4 opera cycle The Ring. His compositions are notable for their complex textures, rich harmonies & orchestration, and use of leitmotifs (musical phrases identifying characters, places, ideas or plot elements). His developments in musical language included extreme chromaticism & quickly shifting tonal centres, he greatly influenced the development of classical music. His Tristan und Isolde is sometimes described as marking the start of modern music.

 

Principle of Form:

1 of the elements of the World Picture the greater the aspect of intuition, the greater the alienation towards Law & Number; it is mobile, transformation. 

 

Principle of Law:

the second elements of the World Picture; the greater the aspect of Nature, the more Law and number prevail.

 

Chronological number:

the number structure of dates & statistics distinguish uniquely occurring actualities (historical events).  It differs from Mathematical number which seeks to find possibilities.  Chronology is to Mathematical number as poetry is to prose.

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Mathematical number:

images of total abstracted thought, pure thought, self-validating (one of Spengler’s rare a priori), when applied to actuality reflect only continuing mystery, which is never solved