Email:        alchemy@dial.pipex.com
Address :   Adam McLean, 15 Keir Street,
                    Glasgow, G41 2NP, U.K.
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Coloured alchemical sequences CD-Rom 1
Emblem sequences with music
There are many sequences of alchemical drawings in manuscripts and engravings in printed books. These series of interrelated images encode the transformational processes of alchemy, and anyone wishing to investigate these processes must work with these alchemical sequences.
I have created slide shows of some of these emblem sequences, and have found these very useful aids for visualising and meditating upon these transformative processes.
To make the emblematic images more accessible to the modern eye, I have hand-coloured the images, and also added music programmed on a synthesiser. I have as far as possible chosen music contemporary with the emblem sequences and which echoes or reflects something of the process itself.

This first CD-Rom includes ten sequences.

Crowning of Nature 67
Donum Dei 12
Freher Tables 29
Hermaphrodite child 13
Mutus Liber 51
Petrus Bonus 12
Rosary of the Philosophers 20
Splendor Solis 22
Theatre of Terrestrial Astronomy 16
Pandora 18

261 coloured illustrations in all.

The images
I have hand-coloured each image using watercolours taking a relatively conservative approach, using as far as possible naturalistic colouring, but with a care to incorporate the symbolic use of colours in alchemical illustrations. I have drawn on my experience of the watercoloured illustrations found in many alchemical manuscripts and the style of colouring follows the conventions of such manuscripts. The images are on the CD-Rom as jpeg graphic files and can also be viewed individually in a graphics program or web browser. This CD-Rom is provided for private study only. The images are copyright © Adam McLean, and cannot be used for public display or in publications without permission.

The music
For this CD-Rom I have orchestrated the music and played it through a multi-timbral synthesiser (Yamaha SY77) which incorporates sampled instruments. I have used a wide palette of instruments to provide variety, a number of horns (french horn, flugel horn, trumpets), woodwind (oboe, clarinet, bassoon, flute), harp, harpsichord, and some strings, organs and orchestral sounds. I have avoided any modern entirely synthetic sounds as well as the piano. The general sound can be likened to an early music group, but of course with no pretentions to authenticity. Purists will of course deplore my approach, but I have tried to find music which goes well with the images and to orchestrate it sympathetically. The output from the synthesiser has been 'fattened' or enriched by using stereo chorus, and is further run through an effects processor to provide a simulation of the reverberation experienced in a performance space. People with a trained musical ear probably detest this, but I find it does enrich the sound of the instruments.

System requirements:Windows 3.1 (minimum) and all later Windows operating systems. CD-Rom drive. Standard soundcard with stereo output. Standard 800x600 monitor (best wiewed in 24 bit true-colour). The music is recorded as 'wav' sound files, and so does not require a midi setup. The program is not computer intensive and will run on a basic system, even on a 486.
On some systems the images might not entirely synchronise with the music. This can be avoided by setting your graphics card to True colour (24 bit) and making sure your CD-Rom is set up to read ahead. Otherwise the music may end before the last image. Unfortunately, slow graphics cards or CD-Roms may not synchronise the music correctly.
These slide shows are written for Windows operating system and will run on Windows 3.1, 95, 98 and NT. [Some Macintosh users have reported that programs such as these can be run on the Mac using VirtualPC with Windows98 installed, however, I cannot guarantee that this will work as I have no way of testing it or giving support. It is likely that synchronisation of music and images will not be satisfactory on a Mac using Windows emulation.]
Further sequences are in preparation and will be issued later.