The Rosslyn Code The real mystery lurking in the chapel

[Nordic]

A little off topic, but I saw this this morning and this seems as good a place as any to share it:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-13522546

Patron saint of genital disease’s severed head for sale

The severed head of a man said to be the patron saint of genital disease will go on auction in County Meath on Sunday.

The skull is allegedly that of St Vitalis of Assisi, an Italian Benedictine monk from the 14th century.

It belonged to an Anglo-Irish family from County Louth, and is housed in a Queen Anne case dating from the 17th century.

There has been no official verification of the claim.

St Vitalis was born in Umbria, Italy, and is said to have lived an immoral and licentious youth.

In an attempt to atone for his early sins, he later undertook pilgrimages to shrines throughout Europe, eventually entering the Benedictine monastery at Subiaco.

After leaving the monastery, he lived the remainder of his life as a hermit near Assisi.

It is said that he wore only rags and shunned all material wealth, with the exception of a basket which he used to fetch water from a nearby stream.

He died in 1370, and word of his sanctity soon spread due to reports of numerous miracles performed on those with bladder and genital disorders.

Grand tour
It is unclear exactly how his head may have ended up in Ireland.

Auctioneer Damien Matthews, who is selling the macabre item on Sunday, said that the family think an ancestor brought it back from the grand tour of Europe in the 18th century.

The grand tour was an educational rite of passage for wealthy Europeans from the 17th until the 19th century, intended to provide insight into the great cultural symbols of Europe.

The head sat for many years in the family hall in County Louth, but was recently uncovered in an outhouse.

Mr Matthews said that although he couldn't be certain it was the head of a saint: "It's certainly ancient, and it's certainly the head of somebody."

The Holy Cross Monastery, a Benedictine order in Rostrevor, County Down, did not even know who St Vitalis was, and after an internet search, declined to comment further on the matter of his or anyone else's severed head.

The auction takes place at Annesbrook House in Duleek, County Meath, on 29 May at 1500 BST.

[Joe Hillshoist]

Seamus you rock.

[Allegro]

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After twice reading Chris Wilson’s four articles May 17, May 18, May 19 and May 20, my conclusion, for the moment, is that Tommy Mitchell and his son Stuart have produced quite a story for themselves, what with sales of forthcoming albums and scheduled concerts, evidently one appearance in Giza in 2012.

Now, the one idea that most came across like cold water splashed in my face was the title, The Rosslyn Motet, because the word motet is described as:

a piece of music for a church service sung by a choir without instrumental accompaniment. The words are usually in Latin. If the words are written in English for the Anglican church it is called an anthem.

From that description, here’s one of a few glitches. From what texts might have Tommy or Stuart Mitchell, or anyone else ftm, selected for the composition from which this short mp3 excerpt includes a counter-tenor singing what I assume is Latin? The link to the excerpt is found on this advert page titled The Rosslyn Motet. Throughout the collective Chris Wilson articles, I didn’t see mention of texts, lyrics, or even simple vowel sounds that would be sung for the music Mitchell negotiated from Rosslyn Chapel’s artifacts.

So, Mitchell’s work has become a marketable story and products for their target audience by conflating 1) supposed musical composition left behind by the Chapel’s masons with 2) use, I believe, of a misinterpreted word “motet,” with 3) lyrical texts that might or might not be part of the original masons’ architectural features.

However, for more about Stuart Mitchell’s philosophy, see this pdf Translating Genetics into Musical Harmonies, or, The Frozen Music of Rosslyn Chapel by Mitchell’s collaborator, Robert Merrick.
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You know what I really find captivating? These ideas remained with me as I read Wilson’s articles on Mitchell’s work.

The idea that biotic forms are created within fluctuations of heat manifest in the physical universe. Biotic forms are vibrating.

A further idea for which I’ve personal experience and therefore cosmological assumptions, which are acceptable by me, but no acceptable evidence from a scholastically scientific point of view: Are music and visual arts (or, really, the doing of anything) created within and pulsed outward by fluctuations of heat?

If I said any more than that, you’d find more of what I don’t know about the laws of physics. So, I’m open to your thoughts.