Mysticism, Magic and Supernatural in Mediterranean Music

A symposium will be held at St John's on 27-29 June to disucss mysticism, magic and the supernatural in Mediterranean music.

In this three-day symposium – organised by the Mediterranean study group of the International Council for Traditional Music – scholars from the UK, Europe, the U.S. and Australia will explore the relation between organized sound and the activities and rituals meant to give human beings power over nature or over realities thought to exist above or beyond nature itself. 

Dr Stefano Castelvecchi, Lecturer in Music at St John's, said: "What makes the Mediterranean area especially fascinating  is that its ethnographic present is frequently examined in historical perspective.  The papers presented and discussed at the symposium will approach from a variety of angles (musicological, anthropological, philosophical and historical) traditions from Italy, Spain, Turkey and North Africa, as well as the work of European philosophers such as Cardano and Nietzsche – highlighting significant aspects of this fascinating, and in some respects universal, relation between music-making and esoteric thought and practices."

The symposium will be held from 27-29 June, in the Lightfoot Room in the Divinity School building. All sessions of the symposium are open to all, and there is no conference fee.

The full programme for the event can be found online HERE.