The Parallel Lives of Fabre D'olivet and Johann Friedrich Hugo Von Dalberg
Curious Coincidences: The Parallel Lives of Fabre d'Olivet and Johann Friedrich Hugo von Dalberg By Joscelyn Godwin Professor of Music Colgate University Abstract. Fabre d'Olivet (1767-1825) and Johann Friedrich Hugo von Dalberg (1760-1812) began life in very different circumstances, but their activities, talents, opinions and beliefs show an extraordinary convergence. This is illustrated for both subjects under the headings of Family Origins and Early Life, Physique, Education, Financial Support, Romantic Bildungsreise, The French Revolution, Political Views, Secret Societies, Ecumenism, Belief in an Ineffable God, Christology, Spiritual History, Polar Origins, Reincarnation, Oriental Studies, Creative Inspiration, Novels, Poetry, Translations, Pianists, Songs, Instrumental Music, Sacred Music, Gregorian Chant, Non-Western Music, Moral Effects of Music, and Advice to Young Composers. Opening and concluding remarks consider these coincidences in historical and philosophical contexts. What is the meaning, if any, of coincidence? Its roots remain obscure, for all the efforts by Carl Jung, Arthur Koestler, and others to unearth them.[1] Yet the appearance of separate shoots having an uncanny resemblance to each other cannot fail to provoke, or at least to entertain, the open-minded viewer. Such is the case with the lives and work of these two contemporaries. One, Fabre d'Olivet (1767-1825), is a large fish in the small pond of the French esoteric tradition. The other, Fritz von Dalberg (1760-1812), survives as he lived, eclipsed by his more famous brothers-though even these, Archbishop Karl Theodor, Napoleon's puppet monarch of the Rhine, and Wolfgang Heribert, intendant of the Mannheim Theatre and first presenter of Schiller's plays, are hardly household names.[2] Despite the social disparity between the noble Dalbergs and the self-made Fabres, both subjects grew up in wealthy surroundings, with indulgent parents.
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