CD Rubedo

Lutz Kirchhof, Renaissance and Baroque lute

Before one can be seduced into the world of sophisticated music, one first has to understand the meaning this music has for its creator. What were the composers’ intentions? What expectations did they have from their listeners?

Lute music has been called the “quiet music”. It transplants one into distant worlds of fantasy and of feeling and, therefore, makes possible a weightless travel through one’s own private and inner world.

In this context, the relationship between music and alchemy played an important role. Alchemists used the lute to call forth spiritualized processes through the workings of its sounds which they regarded as analogous to the laws of the cosmos. The alchemistic principal of the Hermes Trismegistos, “as above, so below”, gained therefore in importance.

Pater Mersenne wrote in his Harmonie Universelle from 1636: “A lutenist can accomplish everything with his instrument. For example, he can create the geometric center and calculate the square of the circle, the relationships in the movement of stars, the speed of a falling body and thousands of other things.” Sir Thomas Mace described moments of enlightenment that repeatedly recurred during his lute playing in his Musickes Monument of 1676.

With this CD I want to take you on an unusual journey through the world of lute music. I have chosen the program according to the four step process of alchemistic transformation, each step leading you into a different sphere.

Lutz Kirchhof

AUDIO EXAMPLES TRAILOR