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Godwin, Joscelyn
Category: Musician or composer
Joscelyn Godwin (born 1945, England) is a musicologist and translator, known for his work on ancient music, ‘paganism’ and music in the occult.
Joscelyn was born in Kelmscott Manor, the former home of William Morris, the poet, craftsman, and socialist. Both his mother and father were artists and fell in love with each other and with Kelmscott Manor. As Kelsmcott’s first tenants after the Morris family, Edward and Stephani Scott-Snell rented the historic Oxfordshire house throughout the Second World War.
Joscelyn was educated as a chorister at Christ Church Cathedral School, Oxford, then at Radley College (Music Scholar), and Magdalene College , Cambridge (Music Scholar; B.A., 1965, Mus. B., 1966, M.A. 1969).
He moved to the U.S. in 1966 to undertake post-graduate work in musicology at Cornell University where he gained his Ph.D. in 1969 with a dissertation on "The Music of Henry Cowell". He then taught at Cleveland State University for two years before moving to Colgate University Music Department in 1971.
Amongst his work is the first complete English language translation (1999) of one of the first illustrated printed texts, the incunabulum Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (1499).
He continues to teach in the music department at Colgate University, where he often teaches semester-long courses delving into the life and work of a single composer.
His books and translations have been a very valuable resource for this site.
References
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- Harmonies of Heaven and Earth: Mysticism in Music from Antiquity to the Avant-Garde
- The Theosophical Enlightenment (SUNY Series in Western Esoteric Traditions) Nov 1994
- Mystery Religions in the Ancient World (London: Thames & Hudson, 1981; also published in Greek, Japanese)
- Music and the Occult. French Musical Philosophies 1750-1950 (Rochester: University of Rochester Press/London: Boydell & Brewer, 1995; previously published in French; also published in Japanese)
- Athanasius Kircher’s Theatre of the World
- Arktos: the Polar Myth
- Atlantis and the Cycles of Time
- Symbols in the Wilderness
- The Forbidden Book
and translations of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili and The Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz
also Dr. Joscelyn Godwin at CPAK 2008
I have also included extracts from Joscelyn's latest book, The Starlight years
Observations
For iPad/iPhone users: tap letter twice to get list of items.
- Godwin, Joscelyn - God the Alchemist
- Godwin, Joscelyn - Harmonies of Heaven and Earth - Levels and layers
- Godwin, Joscelyn - Harmonies of Heaven and Earth - The Planets
- Godwin, Joscelyn - Knowing who you are
- Godwin, Joscelyn - Music, Mysticism and Magic - Ascension
- Godwin, Joscelyn - Music, Mysticism and Magic - On birth
- Godwin, Joscelyn - Music, Mysticism and Magic - Ten
- Godwin, Joscelyn - Music, Mysticism and Magic - The Sound of the Sun
- Godwin, Joscelyn - On butterflies
- Godwin, Joscelyn - On Shabda Yoga
- Godwin, Joscelyn - The Great Chain of Being
- Godwin, Joscelyn - The Great Work
- Godwin, Joscelyn - The Starlight years
- Godwin, Joscelyn - Where is heaven?