Music of the Spheres and the Dance of Death: Studies in Musical Iconology
Dublin Core
Title
Music of the Spheres and the Dance of Death: Studies in Musical Iconology
Creator
Kathi Meyer-Baer
Publisher
Princeton : Princeton University Press
Date
1970
Table Of Contents
1. I. Theories of the cosmos in antiquity ; The structure and motion of the cosmos ; The abode of the dead and the problem of the highest heaven ; The movers of the spheres and the figure of the angel -- II. The Hellenistic period ; Plato's successors ; Gnostic writings ; Neoplatonists and Stoics -- III. The early Christian centuries ; Non-Christian theories ; Martianus capella ; The church fathers ; Dionysius's angel hierarchy -- IV. The early works of art ; Representations of the cosmos ; The movers of the spheres and the figure of the angel ; Representations of the angel orders ; Symbols of music -- V. Tonal theories of music of the spheres ; Early variants ; Medieval theory ; Reflections in visual art -- VI. The emergence of celestial musicians in Christian iconography ; The Beatus manuscripts ; Emergence of musicians and dancers ; Elders and angels -- VII. Late medieval writings and Dante's paradise ; Mystics and scholastics ; The transition to Dante ; Dante's vision -- VIII. Musician angels ; Dancing angels and the dance of the blessed ; Singing angels ; Angel orchestras ; Angels of the Psalter ; Angels' instruments -- Real or imaginary? -- IX. Renaissance and humanism -- X. Two offshoots of the idea of the music of the spheres.
2. XI. Music as a symbol of death in antiquity ; Ancient non-Greek civilizations ; Harpies, sirens, and muses in Homer's Greece -- XII. Later Greek concepts and the Hellenistic period ; The benevolent siren ; The psychopomp muse ; The figure of Orpheus -- XIII. The Christian era and the development of early medieval images ; Changed concepts of life after death ; The survival of Orpheus ; The concept of the Pneuma ; Sirens and harpies ; The figure of Satan ; The symbolism of particular instruments -- XIV. Later medieval images: the dance of death ; The figure of the skeleton ; Fifteenth-century examples of the dance of death ; Holbein's Totentanz ; Origins of the dance of death -- XV. The fifteenth-century mystics -- XVI. Survivals of earlier images ; Later versions of the dance of death ; Survivals of ancient figures in fairy tales ; Music and death: a summary ; Conclusion: survivals in contemporary musical concepts.
2. XI. Music as a symbol of death in antiquity ; Ancient non-Greek civilizations ; Harpies, sirens, and muses in Homer's Greece -- XII. Later Greek concepts and the Hellenistic period ; The benevolent siren ; The psychopomp muse ; The figure of Orpheus -- XIII. The Christian era and the development of early medieval images ; Changed concepts of life after death ; The survival of Orpheus ; The concept of the Pneuma ; Sirens and harpies ; The figure of Satan ; The symbolism of particular instruments -- XIV. Later medieval images: the dance of death ; The figure of the skeleton ; Fifteenth-century examples of the dance of death ; Holbein's Totentanz ; Origins of the dance of death -- XV. The fifteenth-century mystics -- XVI. Survivals of earlier images ; Later versions of the dance of death ; Survivals of ancient figures in fairy tales ; Music and death: a summary ; Conclusion: survivals in contemporary musical concepts.
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Citation
Kathi Meyer-Baer, “Music of the Spheres and the Dance of Death: Studies in Musical Iconology,” Humanities Hub, accessed December 21, 2024, https://humanitieshub.sdsu.edu/omeka/items/show/417.