Musicological studies into the works of English composer, Cyril Scott (1879-1970), will almost ubiquitously include a brief and circumspect reference to his avowed “occult” interests. Considered for a time to be one of the most promising talents of the English Musical Renaissance, Scott is certainly a figure of great interest in the context of British music history; however, the fanatical nature of his personal activities and belief system have typically dissuaded researchers from venturing beyond a bare consideration of his music. The source of the academic reluctance is clear—those interested in pursuing Scott’s biographical details any further than the scant outline often provided are confronted with references to secret occult circles, Masters and swâmis, gnomes and angels, the “sheaths of the soul,” clairaudient investigations and disembodied Tibetan organists. The impenetrable character of Scott’s belief system has led to the arbitrary application of such cover-all terms as “mystical” or “Theosophical” in its description, thereby effectively sealing shut a potential hermeneutic gateway into his musical output, and eluding a further understanding of the man himself. Much of the biographical information currently available on Scott relies almost solely on the detail provided in the composer’s own two autobiographies. These are clearly problematic sources on which to base our understanding, for a number of reasons. The difficulties associated with approaching Scott’s belief system are similar to those regarding his biographical detail, including issues of authenticity, representation and “veiling.” As a result, much of Scott’s thinking has remained hidden in his sizable literary oeuvre, untouched by musicologists. Within his literary output is revealed a distinct line of developing aesthetic thought, culminating in a theory which he considered to have been his greatest literary contribution. By examining Scott’s literary output and extrapolating new biographical detail from other sources, there begins to appear a clearer picture of how Scott’s aesthetic thinking gradually became intimately entwined in, and driven by, his developing philosophical outlook and spiritual beliefs. It is the contention of this thesis that Scott’s aesthetic thought, rather than falling within an “Orientalist” or merely “Theosophical” construct, was actually firmly rooted in the aestheticism of modernist anti-rationalist philosophies traditionally associated with certain literary movements, particularly Symbolism. From this characterisation, the present study will explore Scott’s aesthetic theorizing within the framework of his spiritual development. Its purpose is to initiate a new and more comprehensive platform from which to approach Scott’s music and also to raise new questions regarding the impact of the aesthetics of particular literary trends on the position of music within early twentieth-century aesthetic theories.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/286128 |
| Creators | Sarah Siobhan Collins |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Detected Language | English |
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