Paul Ferguson recently drew attention to the existence of some pieces of music composed by Robert Fludd which are in a manuscript now in Yale.
Through the kindness of the musicologist and composer Todd Barton I managed to obtain transcriptions of two of these pieces and this weekend some friends of mine, who perform early music, played through these two pieces, one called "Dr Flud's Dreame" and the other a Caranto (courante or dance form). These two musical works are not mere exercises in harmony, but rather engaging pieces, using a wide range of interesting compositional devices. They sound really good examples of early 17th century music.
I'm sorry that I've not been participating in this forum. Alan Thorogood told me about your posting on Fludd's alchemical music and I'd be very interested to learn more about this. Musician friends of mine, Eclipse, are creating a new repertoire of alchemical and magical music. Needless to say, they are working on Maier's Atalanta fugues, also trying to do something with Ticinensis and I know they'd be absolutely delighted to learn more about Fludd's compositions. If you'd like to visit their site, here's the url: http://www.eclipse-baroquefusion.com/
By the way, it looks as though I'm going to be up in Glasgow soon. My postdoc is running out here in London and I'm going to be trying to help Strathclyde do something with its alchemy collection. We've already been talking about having a performance or several performances of alchemical music.
Things are a bit up in the air here at the moment, but I'll let you know when I am coming up. It looks as though I'm going to be there for several months, so I do hope we can meet up. Your ideas will be greatly valued!
