Esoteric Music, Music Performance, & Music Research Symposium
This symposium seeks to bring together music scholars, performers, and teachers with a sincere interest in the intersection of music and esoteric ideas and practices.
Dates: February 21-23, 2020
Location: School of Music, Nazareth College, 4245 East Avenue, Rochester NY 14618
Open: Opening Remarks, Keynote Address, and all Paper Sessions are free and open to the community
Schedule
Friday, February 21
Medaille Formal Lounge, Nazareth College, Medaille Dormitory
- 5:30pm: Registration/Reception Opens (Buffet reception for presenters)
- 6:30pm: Welcome and Opening Remarks, Mario Martinez (Director, School of Music) and Marjorie Roth
- 6:45pm: Keynote Address: What Makes Music Esoteric? by Joscelyn Godwin
- If you are planning to attend the Keynote address, kindly let Dr. Marjorie Roth know.
Saturday, February 22
SESSION 1: THEOSOPHY & FREEMASONRY
Arts Center 14; papers 9:00am – 10:30am
8:30am: Breakfast for Presenters (Arts Center 14 Hallway)
- Sonic Symbolism: Matthew Cooke's Process for Assigning Music to the Scottish Rite Craft Degrees, by Andrew Owen
- New American Eden: Katherine Tingley and Music at Lomaland, by Christopher Scheer
- Theosophy and Sun Ra's Esoteric Musical Modernism, by Anna Gawboy
10:30am – 10:45pm, Coffee Break for Presenters (Arts Center 14 Hallway)
SESSION 2: THEOLOGY & RELIGION
Arts Center 14; papers 10:45am – 12:15pm
- Concealment Revealed: Sound and Symbol in Ockeghem's Missa Quinti toni and Missa Prolationum, by Adam Knight Gilbert
- "Im Himmel und auf Erden": Geometry, Alchemy, and Rosicrucian Symbol in Buxtehude's Herr, wenn ich nur Dich hab' (BuxWV 38), by Malachai Bandy
- (In)Audible Sound in Spiritualist Acoustemologies, by Codee Ann Spinner
12:30pm, Lunch for Presenters (Lipson Lounge, Arts Center)
SESSION 3: CREATION & IMAGINATION
Arts Center 14; papers 2:00pm – 3:30pm
- Air and Eros: Musician as Demiurge in Renaissance Magic, by Leonard George
- The Hoard and the Grail: A Wagnerian Conspiracy in Five Parts, by Woody Steinken
- The Osiris-Light in Nino Rota's Music, by Pasquale Giaquinto (Read by Marjorie Roth)
3:30pm – 3:45pm, Break
SESSION 4: TRANSFORMATION & TRANSMUTATION
Arts Center 14; papers 3:45 – 5:15pm
- Athanasius Kircher and the Nature of Ecstatic Listening, by Charles E. Brewer
- Hearing the Demon's Song: The Condemned Magic of Tommaso Campanella in the Operas of the Barberini Court, by Virginia Christy Lamothe
- Bach's Symbolic Language in the Passacaglia and Fugue in c minor (BWV 582). by Michail Konstantinos Chalkiopoulos
6:00pm – 7:30pm, Dinner for Presenters (Medaille Formal Dining Room, Medaille Dormitory)*
Sunday, February 23
SESSION 5: THEORY, ANALYSIS, & UNIVERSAL TRUTH
Arts Center 14; papers 9:00am – 10:30am
8:30am: Breakfast for Presenters (Arts Center Hallway)
- Gubaidulina's Numerology and its Sonic Characteristics, by Noah Kahrs
- Music Analysis as Esoteric Activity: Viktor Zuckerkandl at Eranos, by Daphne Tan
- "De septenario illo et sacro numero": The Divine Septenarius in Baryphonus and Grimm's Pleiades musicae, by Benjamin Dobbs
10:30am – 10:45am, Coffee Break for Presenters (Arts Center Hallway)
SESSION 6: MAKING MUSIC ESOTERICALLY
Arts Center 14; papers 10:45am – 12:15pm
- Magic Squares, Cosmic Unity, and Eternal Laws of Nature: A New View of Webern's Op. 24 as a Synthesis of Contemporary Esoteric Thought, by Beth Abbate
- Musica ficta, Conjunction Theory, and the Hermaphroditic Nature of the Mi-Fa Complex, by Adam Bregman
- Contemplative Practice in Improvised Modal Auditory Space, by Justin Ray Glosson
12:30pm, optional lunch (Nazareth College Dining Commons; $12.69 cash or credit)
*Limited space is available for people who wish to attend the Saturday evening dinner for the presenters. The cost for the dinner is $38 USD. If you wish to attend, please contact Marjorie Roth, mroth1@naz.edu, no later than February 7, 2020.