Module description
N.B. Students must be able to read music fluently
Of all the evidence on which we rely to tell the story of medieval music, the material evidence of the manuscript is perhaps the most important. This module will narrate the history of medieval music as told by the manuscripts, and over the course of the semester we will visit some of the major monuments of the tradition through facsimiles and online digital libraries. In the first instance, the goal is to introduce students to some of the major sources through which musicologists and medievalists have extrapolated the repertories of the past. Among the books and scrolls we shall encounter are some of the earliest extant chant books associated with St. Gall; troubadour and trouvère sources of the thirteenth century; and the manuscripts of Guillaume de Machaut.
In getting to know music through its material trace, this module will develop a range of practical and critical modes of thinking. On the one hand, it will encourage and develop a technical understanding of the physicality of the manuscript: how was it made? For and by whom? What is entailed in making space for musical notation? How can we establish dating and provenance from the evidence before our eyes? On the other hand, we will also wonder about what is absent: how did these objects relate to singing voices? How much of a musical performance do they 'remember', and what is left out or forgotten? What does the materiality of music communicate about the multiple meanings of any given tradition? What is the correlation between physical value and cultural prestige? These are just a few of the approaches we shall develop during the semester.
As well as making use of many excellent manuscript reproductions, this module will also include fieldtrips to local collections, to encounter manuscripts first hand. Assignments will include a manuscript project, in which students will work with a source of their own choosing, and prepare a short response (in the form of a catalogue entry, blog post, or analysis) intended to develop critical skills for writing about the material traces of music. Students will have the chance to apply their skills to materials more closely related to their particular areas of study for a final project. This course is thus designed for students from a range of backgrounds in musicology and medieval studies.
Assessment details
20% manuscript commentary [1500 words]
80% final project [4000 words]
Educational aims & objectives
To introduce students to the main repertories of medieval music through the manuscripts in which they are trans mitted; repertories and sources represented include chant (St. Gallen mauscripts), early English polyphony (Winchester Tropers); troubadour and trouvere song (range of chansonniers from 12th - 13th centuries); Notre Dame polyphony (main Notre Dame sources); Italian Trecento song (main Italian manuscript sources). - to develop expertise in musical palaeography and notation. - to offer students first - hand experience working with manuscripts, through two scheduled field trips to the British Library (see below). - to introduce students to the broader theoretical literature relating to the interpretation of material texts. - to develop bibliographic skills for the location of primary sources materials in library holdings, facsimiles and so forth; in particular, to investigate the digital platforms now widely available for the study of medieval manuscripts, and to explore the place of digital humanities in the study of medieval music. - to foster independent application of skills learned, and to supervise students working on manuscripts (from facsimile and digital platforms) in the application of skills, culminating in students' independent application of skills in research projects on assigned manuscript sources. - to train students to integrate pragmatic investigation of manuscript sources with other kinds of evidence (theoretical, musical/analytical, historical). - to build transferable skills for students who will not necessarily pursue further study in.
Learning outcomes
Course will broaden students' knowledge base; by the end of the course, students will be familiar with a range of medieval musical repertories and manuscript sources, including chant, early polyphony, Notre Dame polyphony, vernacular song of the 12th - 13th centuries; Trecento song. - by the end of the module, students will have acquired skills for the analysis, description and interpretation of medieval music manuscripts. - by the end of the module, students will have had extensive experience in locating and handling manuscript sources (in facsimile, online, and first - hand); course will also train them to use extensive digital resources, and to deploy methodologies emerging from digital humanities. - by the end of the module, students will have read widely in a range of fields relating to manuscript studies, and will have had opportunity to integrate this knowledge with the primary musical evidence studied. - weekly assignments and final class symposium will expand students' communication skills, and give them experience of interpreting evidence collectively, thus strengthening collaborative skills. - final assignment will permit students to apply skills and knowledge independently, under supervision of the professor. - the module will prepare students to apply and adapt knowledge and skills gained in a variety of new contexts: non - medievalists will be encouraged to explore ways of adapting methodologies and skills acquired in other musical situations; non - musicoMMUSlogist medievalists will be equipped to apply palaeographic and theoretical approaches to other medieval source materials, as well as to expand their knowledge base to include musical evidence in future.