Music, Science and Natural Magic in Seventeenth-Century England

Rating:
Summary: Lutes, viols and virginals
Review: How changes in the theory and practice of music echoed and exemplified a crescendo of new natural philosophy, and an equal and opposite diminuendo of traditional natural magic, is the subject of Gouk's book, an harmonious work that comprises three movements. The first, 'Geographies', poses and answers such questions as how was music understood in the period; how was it taught; who performed it, and on what instruments; where was it played and appreciated; and who were its audiences. The second is an annotated 'Gallery' of illustrations -picturing, amongst other things, the Theatre of Instruments, the Division of the Scale, and the Harmony of the Spheres- taken from contemporary publications by diverse authors, among them Fludd, Kircher, Schott and Mersenne. The last part, 'Narratives' relates the history of the Royal Society's engagements with music and the new Science of Acousticks, then studies of the role of music in the lives and works of Hooke and Newton. The author shews that, over the course of the century in question, the pursuit of knowledge and truth via natural philosophy took on an increasingly public and collaborative character, and this trend had an analogue in the increasing prevalence of public performance of music that had previously been confined to the chambers of the elite: in both cases, a species of Performing Art was being redirected, outward, to a broad audience in a secular setting. This absorbing book is clearly a distillation of many years' study and thought, and the resultant brew is a potent elixir of images and ideas, which almost evokes, at times, the sound of a lute, a viol or a virginal.

Rating:
Summary: Great. Please contact me!
Review: I haven't read the book yet but I do want to get in touch with the author, Penny Gouk. We were at university together and I am putting together a newsletter for all those of us in her year. Please ask her to contact me on: [e-mail]