Symposium: Alchemy of Power

Alchemy of Power: Johannes Kepler’s Harmonice Mundi and the Interplay of "Cosmic Music and Political Power at the Court of Rudolf II"

Speakers: 
Jemma Thrussell (Bremen)
Christian Leitmeir (Oxford)

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Under the spell of stars and the planets: Cosmological themes in Rudolfine music | Prof. Christian Leitmeir (Oxford) 

The early modern period inherited Boethius’s vision of musica as an elemental force that governs the cosmos, the human organism and musical instruments. All too often, however, discussions of musica speculativa were the exclusive domain of high-powered intellectuals, far removed from the more hands-on education received by practical musicians and composers.

The Imperial Court of Rudolf II at Prague provides a welcome opportunity to revisit the perceived gulf between mere theorists and mere practitioners. Not only did Rudolf II have the ambition to summon the most exquisite proponents of both fields to Prague. With the astronomer/mathematician Johannes Kepler and the physician/alchemist Michael Maier, his court boasted first-class scientists with interest and practical expertise in music. They worked alongside, but perhaps also together with, composers and performers who were receptive to scientific and intellectual ideas. My contribution seeks to delineate the scope and limitations of such synergies through the lens of musical compositions (by Luython, Monte, Kerle and Maier) whose words and compositional strategies resonate with cosmological themes.