One event I am really excited about involves Ars Antigua – in part because it was one of the first events I worked on when I joined the CHF team. Ars Antigua is a local ensemble, specializing in the music of the Renaissance, Baroque, and Classical eras (you can learn more about them on their website: http://arsantiguapresents.com/). They are a terrific group and have participated in the CHF in the past – always to great acclaim.
Ars Antigua
When we started our conversation, an idea that quickly emerged was to focus on music that somehow references the human body. It turns out that composers from Hasse to Mozart composed little pieces about eyes, legs, and various other body parts. That sounded like a great start, but it got us thinking about combining performances of this music with historical research on the way the body was thought of in the 17th and 18th centuries – exactly the kind of approach only the CHF would take to the classical repertoire.
This, in turn, led us to the history of science and medicine – and here, someone came to mind immediately: Robert J. Richards, the Morris Fishbein Professor of the History of Science and Medicine at the University of Chicago. Bob, as he is know to everyone, is the world’s leading authority on Charles Darwin as well as the author of widely acclaimed books on the history of German science (for more information, see his website: http://home.uchicago.edu/~rjr6/).
Bob Richards
I had the great fortune to study with Bob when I was getting my PhD at the University of Chicago – so I know that he is one of the most charismatic and innovative intellectuals around. A couple of e-mails later, Bob enthusiastically agreed to join us at the CHF for a collaboration with Ars Antigua.
Mozart
A meeting followed and we now look forward to a truly amazing interdisciplinary event. Building on the original idea of Ars Antigua, we will focus on three towering figures of the late 18th and early 19th centuries: Mozart, Schubert, and Goethe. As it turns out, and as Bob will explicate, these giants of music and literature had close connections that turned on their shared interest in conceptions of the body and science, more generally.
Goethe
What’s more, the CHF event will restage the way scholarly presentations were made in the 18th century. As it turns out, those were never free-standing events, but were accompanied by musical interludes. This is what we will offer up at CHF: Ars Antigua will perform the pieces under discussion, while Bob will offer short lectures contextualizing the music, literature, and science.
Only CHF could put this kind of thing on stage. And I, for one, can’t wait to see the result of this unique collaboration.
Tags: The Body, music, History of Science and Medicine, Mozart, Schubert, Goethe
