Music: Alchemy and the Elements

[Paul Ferguson]

"The 16th-century Italian composer and music theorist Gioseffo Zarlino imagines the four voices of Renaissance counterpoint in terms of the four elements of earth, water, air, and fire. It’s an interesting example of the power of metaphysical thinking even at a time when music was being aggressively secularized, rationalized, and codified into systems of rules and norms. Zarlino’s scheme is a fun lens through which to hear Renaissance counterpoint; it could also be fruitful as a generative idea for composing or improvising, with the four elements being more flexibly conceived as generalized models of musical behavior, without necessarily being strictly tied to register. And what would be the role of the elusive fifth element — “aether,” the alchemical quintessence — in such a musical conception?"

https://possiblemusic.substack.com/p/zar...unterpoint