IN 1950, Cyril Scott wrote a cranky letter to Musical Opinion in which he defended himself against a critic who (in Scott's words) ‘put forward my interest in the occult as a reason for my shortcomings as a composer’. Scott complained that:

He further indicated not only that ‘I have never attempted to be a practising mystic’ but also that ‘my musical characteristics’ had developed ‘before my interest in such matters was aroused’. Such an avowal implied that his music should be judged without regard for his immensely popular occult writings, some of which are still with us today, having been continuously in print for nearly a century.

Yet, as I pointed out in my chapter on Scott's chamber music, there is indeed a connection between Scott's musical practice and his occult beliefs. They evolved in parallel and interacted with each other. But the music was also the result of an evolution that had begun, as Scott stated, before his interest in the occult developed. Thus Scott's answer to his critic should be understood to imply that there is no easy, simple, or superficial relationship between the two. The evolution of his chamber music over half a century indicates how sophisticated was Scott's development of musical analogues for mystical experiences and notions. Here we shall examine in greater detail just what those notions were.

In An Outline of Modern Occultism, Scott defined occultism as ‘the synthesis of Science, Mysticism, Philosophy, Psychology and Religion, in their purest forms’. He elaborated on this definition as follows: