| Moderated by: alchemyd | ||
| Author | Post | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Paul Ferguson Member 
|
Apparently Michael Arne, son of Thomas ('God Save the King/Queen'), was both a prolific composer (including nine operas) and a keen alchemist: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Arne See Grove, DNB, James Granville Southworth's 'Vauxhall Gardens' etc. |
|||||||||
|
Leigh Penman Member
|
It's interesting, but did alchemy substantively influence the nature or character of his music? Or vice versa? I suppose that's the hard question! |
|||||||||
|
Paul Ferguson Member
|
Leigh Penman wrote:It's interesting, but did alchemy substantively influence the nature or character of his music? Or vice versa? I suppose that's the hard question! Michael Maier's music sounds quite weirdly beautiful to my ears, and I would love to know why it sounds so otherworldly. Even Robert Fludd's music, mediocre by comparison, has an ethereal quality. I think Arne was motivated more by intellectual curiosity and (perhaps even more so) by financial desperation than by esoteric interests, but he does seem to have been a member of the William Beckford circle. See: http://www.erudit.org/revue/RON/2007/v/n46/016129ar.html |
|||||||||