Description

This is a study of the forgotten philosophy of Nature which followed the ideas of Lord Shaftesbury. It begins at Shugborough, the Staffordshire home of Thomas Anson and asks how the creators of such gardens understood Nature. This leads to the key idea shared by Isaac Newton, James Harris, Floyer Sydenham and Giuseppe Tartini that the guiding law in Nature was Harmony. These ideas are set in the context of the musical lives of Thomas Anson of Shugborough and his social circle, in which performances of music by Handel and Gluck, including the British premiere of his revolutionary opera Orfeo ed Euridice in 1770, can be seen as aspects of a campaign to revive Platonism as an antidote to the materialism of 18th-century England. This concern for Nature and its spiritual value is shown to be a foreshadowing of the Romantic movement 50 years later, and, through the forgotten Floyer Sydenham, this small but fascinating movement can be seen to have a direct connection to the world of William Blake. The Vale of the Muses is written for any readers with an interest in Nature and Harmony, Music or the culture of the period. It aims to be entertaining and includes art, mythology poetry and some actual music. It ends with an appendix explaining the significance of the Muses in music and imagination.