Theurgical Attraction

Theurgical: Having, brought about by, or relating to supernatural powers or magic.

I recently agreed to compose music for an exciting and ambitious project by independent theatre director Michael Futcher. As part of this, I embarked on a three volume novel by Alexandre Dumas called Memoirs of a Physician, and was immediately gripped by the story. Michael Futcher describes the project:

Creative development on the project will use as its source the 1600 page Alexander Dumas novel, Memoirs of a Physician, an extraordinary gothic tale of epic proportions set in pre-revolutionary France, as well as biographical accounts of the infamous psychic and Freemason, Cagliostro. Both these subjects with their cornucopia of theatrical elements (alchemy, mysticism, eroticism and excess) offer extraordinary riches for theatrical and thematic development.

I have also been listening to French Baroque harpsichord music. The works of Jean-Philippe Rameau in particular are regarded as among the best of the era. His melodies can be quite simple, but are treated with amazing inventiveness.

As a way to begin re-interpreting music of the era for theatre, I wrote the below harpsichord piece. The musical themes from this work will flow into some future ensemble pieces. But to begin with, I wanted to keep things simple by choosing an instrument that strongly charaterised French Baroque music, to dip my toe into the project.

Theurgical Attraction.mp3

Those familiar with Rameau might notice some influence from Gavotte and Six Doubles from New Pieces for Harpsichord.

Image: This image has been scanned from the book Memoirs of a Physician, volume 1, Illustrated. 1906 Edition, London, J. M. Dent and Co.