Up coming event September 2025
We still have some places on this years Kairos Summer School Retreat.
The Music in Geometry and the Geometry in Music
18th - 21st September at Dartington Hall Estate, Devon UK
With: Dean Brodrick, Adam Tetlow, Sandra Smith, Tom Bree, John Martineau and Amanda Critchlow
In the four studies of the Quadrivium we are offered the opportunity to experience, integrate and reflect upon the timeless, that is, to explore qualities that have true universality; qualities that do not belong to any one time or place but can find a place in the heart of any human being at anytime and anywhere. In this year’s Summer School Retreat, we will cover many aspects of music and geometry. The course will be an embodied understanding of the sacred and geometrical properties and principles of music and resonance, including through singing, drumming, dancing, contemplating the music of the spheres, working with the tetractys, bellringing and so forth.
Included in the range of workshops, you will experience working with Cymatics, or a chladni plate, and drawing some of the geometric patterns we find therein. Hailed as the most clear and satisfying demonstration of the otherwise metaphysical statement that "form arises out of sound" are the experiments of Cymatics. The term was coined by Swiss physician Hans Jenny. The concept of energy vibration asserts that all matter, including the human body, is composed of energy vibrating at different frequencies.
In this workshop we will learn how to build a monochord. This simple instrument has long been used by the ancients, particularly the Greeks, and is often cited by theorists and philosophers as a primary tool for the understanding of musical proportions and ratios.
We will of course be drawing geometry both on A3 paper and on paper that is as big as we are, to experience proportion in relation to musical scales, and understand our personal octave. At the end of this course participants will have gained a deeper understanding of the harmonic series, scales, modes, intervals, tuning systems, harmony, form and rhythm. In short – Order in Time.
For more information please email Amanda Critchlow on kairos.charity@gmail.com