Full Name Joscelyn Godwin Nationality British | Name Joscelyn Godwin Role Composer | |
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Occupation Composer, Musicology and Translator Books Arktos: The Polar Myth in Scienc, The Forbidden Book: A N, Harmonies of heaven and earth, The theosophical enlightenment, Athanasius Kircher's Theatre o | ||
Joscelyn Godwin (born 16 January 1945 at Kelmscott, Oxfordshire, England) is a composer, musicologist, and translator, known for his work on ancient music, paganism, and music in the occult.
He was educated as a chorister at Christ Church Cathedral School, Oxford, then at Radley College (Music Scholar), and Magdalene College, Cambridge (Music Scholar; B.A., 1965, Mus. B., 1966, M.A. 1969).
He moved to the US in 1966 to undertake post-graduate work in musicology at Cornell University, where he gained his PhD in 1969 with a dissertation on "The Music of Henry Cowell". He then taught at Cleveland State University for two years before moving to Colgate University Music Department in 1971. During his tenure in the music department at Colgate University, he often taught semester-long courses delving into the life and work of a single composer. He also taught "The Atlantis Debate," a class which focuses on the feasibility of the flood myth, as well as "Western Esoteric Tradition." He retired from Colgate University in 2016 as Professor of Music Emeritus.
His work includes the first complete English language translation (1999) of one of the first illustrated printed texts, the incunabulum Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (1499).
His only work of fiction to date is the novel The Forbidden Book, co-authored with Guido Mina di Sospiro, which has been translated into eight languages.
He married Janet Matthews in 1979 and has one son, Ariel Godwin (b. 1980).