What does a fifth or an augmented 9th harmony really mean or represent? In the way trumpets may come to represent royalty, what is a flute?

as for the trumpets: that's culture based association passed on through generations. a flute, in musical pieces, often expresses solitude and innocense. they can set quite happy, almost childish moods aswell as sadness for a lost love, and any number of other things. maybe it has to do with the relatively non-complex shape of the flute's waveform, being the first and ageold representation of the pure sine - and it's a breath instrument ofcourse, which expressions are very close to the physical human.

I believe harmonies may either sound pleasant or unpleasant because of waveform harmonics resonance, or the lack thereof. I do believe a large part of this is culture based association aswell though; listen to japanese traditional music and go figure a few things out. or perhaps you'd like to explore the aborigines of australia and the instruments they use, the music they make.

How do you want to achieve lucidity without words... I believe, by being very clear in your head before you start writing, and when you do, write intuitively. Write to what is close to your heart and soul; if what you do doesn't touch you, the writer, then it will certainly not touch the listener. There have always been 2 sacred rules in (music) writing: 1) Kill Your Darlings - if you get stuck on something, discard it and start over, and 2) KISS - Keep It Simple, Stupid! and this counts for any part of the process. The more of a thing you make out of writing a piece, the more of a thing it becomes to the listener to digest, so the less lucid it will become.

my 2 cents.