Composition and Concept by Hayden Chisholm
Realisation by Robert Nacken
Text by Sophie Page and Hayden Chisholm
Kindly supported by Dasha Shenkman obe
Spellbound
Magic Talisman of Venus
You can also listen to the Jukebox by using
your own device: www.medievaljukebox.com
Welcome to the Medieval Jukebox.
To explore ideas and images of the medieval cosmos through sound and music,
click on one of the four images below.
You can re-compose the music yourself by touching the interactive buttons.
the medievaljukebox
Microcosmic Man
Planet Man
SB I
SB II
SB III
Medieval Cosmos
SB IV
Music
Continue
Image
Image
Wellcome Library, London,
about 1420
In the medieval imagination the earth was the still centre of a dynamic cosmos, enclosed within multiple transparent spheres nested closely within one another. The image of ‘microcosmic man’ placed the human body at the centre of the cosmos with lines of influence extending between it, the planets and the zodiac signs. Astrologers studied the movements of the celestial bodies in order to make predictions about their influence on human bodies and personalities.
This sound-piece blends the medieval ideas of
musica humana
(the music of the body)
and the
musica mundana
(music of the celestial spheres)
Medieval people believed that the human body was responsive to the movements and music of the spheres.
Touching each Zodiac sign will activate a chord that represents the ratio of that sign to the earth, as first described by the Greek astronomer Ptolemy. These play out over the sound of the human breath. Which sign resonates most with you and your breath?
Microcosmic Man
Back to the Text
Music
The ratio of the diameter of the Earth to that of the Moon is 11:3. This can be represented in sound by using the eleventh and third harmonics. These in turn form chords which are played in each of the zodiac musical keys, as calculated by Ptolemy in Book 3 of his Harmonics, written around 168 CE.
Home
Ionian
Mixolydian
Medieval Cosmos
You are listening to a melody by the Troubadour poet Matfre Ermengaud who imagined the medieval cosmos as unified by a continuous flow of love between God and his creatures.
Touching the angels activates higher harmonics sung by the voice.
Each button represents an Ancient Greek mode. A mode is just a type of musical scale: you could think of it as playing any eight consecutive white keys of a piano, but changing the starting note of the scale makes it sound very different. Are some modes uplifting, some sad, and others mystical?
Dorian
Aeolian
Lydian
Locrian
Music
Although we do not know how the modes were originally used, we still use the Ancient Greek terms for our musical modes. The recording accompanying this image changes the base mode under the 13th-century troubadour melody to allow the listener to experience directly the "mood" of the modes.
The angels sing harmonics that are higher than those produced by the human voice
Phrygian
with angels moving the spheres
Image
From the Breviary of Love by Matfre Ermengaud. British Library, Royal MS 19 C I. Southern France, early 14th century
The continuous circular motions of the celestial spheres – here moved by angels – were thought to resonate with extraordinary harmonies that were inaudible to human ears but exerted a powerful influence on the physical world. The medieval conception of the universe was based on a pagan cosmological model adapted to Christian principles especially the idea of a benevolent, all-powerful God and good and evil spirits.
Music
Behind the Occitan chant sung by the human voice, the four figures in the corners change the base mode of the song. The planets around the body activate Fibonacci structured chords
(that is harmonics 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55,89 ...) in which the different tones lie between 1 and 21 Hertz, all frequencies relating to rhythms of the human body such as breath, heartbeat, and brainwaves.
The jester activates a tritone (an interval or three tones, commonly associated with the Devil) and the Sun a 109/1 chord, the ratio of the Sun’s diameter to that of the Earth.
Image
From a Flemish Book of Hours, after 1488. The Bodleian Library, University of Oxford (MS Douce 311)
This subtle image shows the medical, psychological and religious relationships between the cosmos and the body. The moon rules the mind, Mercury and Venus the kidneys, the sun the stomach, Mars and Jupiter the liver and Saturn the lungs. Blood should be let at times appropriate to the patient’s temperament, each depicted with its symbolic animal. The jester at the bottom is a lunatic under the influence of the black moon, a fool who has neglected to prepare with prayer and piety for death.
You will hear a charm sung in the Occitan language to protect the body from pain.
The four figures represent the medical temperaments: choleric, sanguine, phlegmatic and melancholic, each depicted with its symbolic animal. Touch them to change the base notes of the melody.
The planets activate different musical chords that correspond to frequencies in the human body: breath, brainwaves, and heartbeat.
The fool sings a tritone, so called because the two notes are three whole tones apart. For centuries this ‘forbidden interval’ has been associated with the devil. Does it still sound demonic?
Planet Man
Magic Talisman of Venus
175 / 1225
Music
Alongside the base melody of the Hymn to Venus, the illuminated squares activate harmonics of the base frequency 1 Hertz (a low C). Harmonics 2-6 can be pressed on and off and are played by an Indian Sruti Box. The higher harmonics are sung by the human voice. The ratio 175/1335 is relates to the sum of all the rows, columns and diagonals in this square. It is played as the two notes of 175Hz and 1335Hz on an alto saxophone.
Lucretius’ ‘Hymn to Venus’, written in the 1st century BC, is here set to music. The image is a magic square – a set of numbers arranged to give the same total when added in a straight line in any direction.
These mathematical curiosities were linked to the planets in medieval Islamic, Christian and Jewish magic. The numbers, sung by a human voice, now come alive. By pressing each one you can activate its musical harmonics or overtones.
Image
British Museum, OA.1361.b.
Talismans reflect the idea that the cosmos is a harmonious web of connections. On the other side of this silver talisman is an image of the goddess Venus with birds’ feet as in the famous work of ritual magic translated from Arabic into Latin and known as the Picatrix. It was particularly intended to help with love, sex, fertility and marriage.