The Aesthetic Life of Cyril Scott

by Collins, Sarah

• ISBN13: 9781843838074
• ISBN10: 1843838079
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2013-03-21
• Publisher: Boydell Pr

Summary

Prolific and personable, innovative and contentious, Cyril Scott (1879-1970) was considered for a time to be one of the most promising young talents in modern British music at the turn of the twentieth century. He was a member of the 'Frankfurt Group' (together with Percy Grainger, Norman O'Neill, Roger Quilter and Balfour Gardiner); his music was performed by some of the leading conductors of the day in England and on the Continent; and his friends included highly influential figures in European literature, art and politics. Apart from his music, Scott also wrote many books on alternative medicine, psychology, Occultism, Theosophy and comparative religion, as well as a great deal of fiction, autobiography and poetry. Scott was not merely a composer but an artist in the broadest possible sense of the term. His aesthetic ideas informed both his creative practice and his mode of living. This book provides the first comprehensive account of Scott's life and influences as well as an outline and contextualization of his aesthetic thinking. It traces his conception of the function of art and the role of the artist from the metaphysical aesthetics of Symbolism through to various esoteric traditions and shows how the cross-pollination of ideas allowed him to develop a fully integrated rationale for his art and life. The story of Scott's intellectual development guides the reader through some of the most fascinating discourses of European modernity. SARAH COLLINS is Assistant Lecturer in Musicology at Monash University.