Peter Sterry and The Masque of Love

‘Even in this earthly body… are Songs, harmony, Musick made by the heavenly spheres of the divine beings themselves in us, by the Charms of which even our house, our Pilgrimage, and all things in it are turned into heavenly Dances and Delights.’

Peter Sterry

Peter Sterry is the most musical of the 17th-century Cambridge Platonists and a writer who deserves to be placed side by side with his contemporary Thomas Traherne. At one time Oliver Cromwell’s chaplain, he became a man of peace and tolerance – and Music and Harmony are at the centre of his thought. Creation is a divine Masque! Andrew Baker shows how important music was to his vision, and suggests that the ostensibly “puritan” Sterry is the true inheritor of the Franciscan musical mysticism of Francesco Giorgi.

Andrew Baker is a retired librarian, a composer and historical researcher. He has spent many years investigating Thomas Anson of Shugborough Hall, Staffordshire, and his influence on the 18th century Greek Revival in the Arts. This has led him the rediscovery of Anson’s friend, Floyer Sydenham and to the composer Antonin Kammell. In his compositions Andrew explores the language of music, and he explores the Spirit of Place in films with music