Music in Renaissance Magic: Toward a Historiography of Others

by Gary Tomlinson

Magic enjoyed a vigorous revival in sixteenth-century Europe, attaining a prestige lost for over a millennium and becoming, for some, a kind of universal philosophy. Renaissance music also suggested a form of universal knowledge through renewed interest in two ancient the Pythagorean and Platonic "harmony of the celestial spheres" and the legendary effects of the music of bards like Orpheus, Arion, and David. In this climate, Renaissance philosophers drew many new and provocative connections between music and the occult sciences.

In Music in Renaissance Magic, Gary Tomlinson describes some of these connections and offers a fresh view of the development of early modern thought in Italy. Raising issues essential to postmodern historiography—issues of cultural distance and our relationship to the others who inhabit our constructions of the past —Tomlinson provides a rich store of ideas for students of early modern culture, for musicologists, and for historians of philosophy, science, and religion.

"A scholarly step toward a goal that many composers have aimed to rescue the idea of New Age Music—that music can promote spiritual well-being—from the New Ageists who have reduced it to a level of sonic wallpaper."—Kyle Gann, Village Voice

"An exemplary piece of musical and intellectual history, of interest to all students of the Renaissance as well as musicologists. . . . The author deserves congratulations for introducing this new approach to the study of Renaissance music."—Peter Burke, NOTES

"Gary Tomlinson's Music in Renaissance Toward a Historiography of Others examines the 'otherness' of magical cosmology. . . . [A] passionate, eloquently melancholy, and important book."—Anne Lake Prescott, Studies in English Literature

Genres: Music, History, Renaissance

308 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

University of Pennsylvania

Reviews

[Cana McGhee · Rating 4 out of 5]

uses renaissance discourses of magic and music(al sound) to think thru foucault and the defamiliarization required to engage with ideas from/about other times, places, ppls. gets more lucid as it progresses, i think bc those thoughts are closer to ones more familiar to our modern ideas. but still a difficult and demanding read, but with a surprising payoff?

[Conor · Rating 3 out of 5]

The metaphysical systems of lute playing Italian warlocks from the turn of the 16th century. What's not to love? Its fun to read when Tomlinson actually gets to the specifics, but sadly I'm much too small brained for this specific tome. I picked up what was being said in broad strokes, but I just haven't read enough academic stuff to really read this properly.

[Kathleen Staten · Rating 2 out of 5]

A real slog. There is a much more readable text on this topic.