ABSTRACT
Musical conceptions of Eros, and erotic conceptions of music, contribute to define the perimeter of love in an "infiniteness" of ways, which enhance the idea of love as cultural construct. The study of pictural, social and semiotic complexities of Eros and music in the English Renaissance offers multiple insights into the cultural history of desire. The trivialization of the syncretic figure of Orpheus posits this deep challenge of ancient ideas of unity, encompassed by its twin expressions in musica speculativa and the Neoplatonic doctrine of love. This ontological and philosophical upheaval underlies the sense of loss which transpires in the emergence of a tragic Eros at the time – the son of Penia more than of Poros. Accordingly, avenues of future research include the relationship between Eros and music in drama, the court masque and religious poetry alongside the epyllion and madrigal.
