The Hidden Pantheon: Decoding Riddles in Baroque Keyboard Music

This project explores whether some of the most well-known European keyboard composers of the Baroque were engaged in a shared musical riddle game that has gone unnoticed until today.

Simply stated, these composers may have coded the names of gods and goddesses, characters from Ovid, planets, friends, patrons, and more, into their compositions, all using one specific musical alphabet, first published by Athanasius Kircher in 1650.

This “Hidden Pantheon” of references may have been used to challenge one another, to flatter and engage their patrons, or even to teach students to expand the array of characters, stories, and emotions that music can convey.

Coding words into music may be a direct development of the riddle culture in both literature and music during the Renaissance. “The Hidden Pantheon” project aims to study the internal evidence for this riddle game in Baroque emblematic books of printed music through cross-cultural studies and close readings and gathering external evidence that this musical alphabet game really was being played, and where, and with whom.

Another goal, grounded in artistic research, will be to actively play this game again, to discover what happens to our music-making when we pursue a riddle and are rewarded with a completely new view of the musical text in front of us.

By steeping ourselves in the idea world of the Baroque we will explore what it will do for our music-making, perhaps opening new ways of being musical story-tellers in the future.