For the interest of the Society Newsletter:
Report on ongoing doctoral work on music an esotericism
Thesis proposed title : "Towards a Hermetic Music: A Proposal for Systems of Composition Based on the Principles of the Hermetic Tradition, with Musical Demonstrations"
Targeted submission date: Summer 2008.
Main disciplines it falls into: Historical and theoretical musicology and music composition, influence of Western esotericism in art music and its theory. Cultural and intellectual history of Western esotericism and its influence on wider culture.
Institutional affiliation : International Centre for Music Studies, University of Newcastle Upon Tyne (UK)
Abstract:
The relationship between Hermeticism and the theory and compositional practice of Western art music has been extensively researched by Joscelyn Godwin, Gary Tomlinson, Penelope Gouk and others. In the first part of my thesis I will comment on this research and bring its results together, presenting it through a set of charts and tables which reviews the proposed inclusion of musical parameters such as pitch, rhythm, instrumental colour, metre and tempo in the Hermetic correspondence theory.
There are though, several inconsistencies, misunderstandings and omissions in the work of historical figures working from Hermeticism into music theory and vice-versa. The second part of my thesis seeks to comment on these, and proposes their clarification whenever possible and desirable, grounded on the perspective of Hermeticism as a living tradition which is currently worked and researched on by practicing Hermeticists such as alchemists, cabalists and magicians. Based on current consensus generally accepted by this living form of contemporary Hermeticism, I propose the filling-in and updating of these lacunae, and put forward musical proposals for the completion of the project of including musical parameters in the Hermetic doctrine of correspondences.
The third part of my thesis is a commented portfolio of original musical compositions in which I have applied the ideas and proposals of some authors which I have reviewed in part I, as well as my own proposals as expressed in part II. This amounts to the practical demonstration of the application of the proposed musical correspondences and Hermetic principles to sounding pieces of music, and constitutes my contribution to this issue form the artistic and intellectual practice of a composer/theorist.
Johann Hasler
Doctoral candidate
International Centre for Music Studies
University of Newcastle Upon Tyne (UK)
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From: Society for The Academic Study of Magic on behalf of LAITY, KATHRYN
Sent: Mon 22/10/2007 21:28
Subject: Societas Magica
I am canvassing for items for the next Societas Magica newsletter and would appreciate any announcements, news items, or notes and queries re: ongoing research. You can see previous newsletters here: (http://brindedcow.umd.edu/socmag/)
Each issue also includes one short essay (1500-2000 words) on a suitable topic, broadly defined as: "the study of magic, both in the positive contexts of its expression as an area of necessary knowledge or religious practice (as in early modern occultism and contemporary paganism), and in its negative contexts as the substance of an accusation or condemnation (as in sorcery trials, and many philosophical and theological accounts, both early and late)."
If you would like to have an essay considered, please send it along as an RTF file.
Kate
K. A. Laity
Assistant Professor, English Department
Affiliated Faculty, Women's Studies Program
The College of Saint Rose
432 Western Avenue
Albany NY 12203
518-485-3778
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http://academic2.strose.edu/Arts_and_Humanities/laityk/index.html <http://academic2.strose.edu/Arts_and_Humanities/laityk/index.html>
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