At the completion of this course, students:
1) are able to engage critically with advanced scholarly literature about pre-modern music;
2) are acquainted with specific research techniques and methodologies appropriate to pre-modern source materials and musical forms of expression;
3) can apply concepts and methods of analysis to specific case studies;
4) will be able to carry out research tasks and report on their findings both orally and in writing at Research MA level.
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This course examines a group of topics and methodologies currently relevant in research concerning music before 1700. The course reconstructs (parts of) the musical repertoire and the music cultures of (late) medieval and/or early modern Europe as transmitted to us in a wide range of sources. We start with an introduction to the basics of early music notation and learn how “music” was conceptualized in pre-modern Europe. We then expand to include narrative, visual and documentary evidence allowing us to place music and sounds in the appropriate historical and social contexts. Particular attention will be placed on the texts and paratexts directly accompanying the music that we study. In addition to highlighting the ceremonial functions of pre-modern music in both the sacred and the secular spheres, we pay close attention to the exchange of musical ideas, the use of musical notation and other methods of transmission, the role of music patronage, and technologies of memory, book-making, and print in a predominantly oral culture. Topics examined in this course in the past include musical riddles, how medieval authors conceptualized animals and their sounds in songs as mirrors of moralized human behaviour, and historically informed performance practice.
Career orientation:
Training in written and oral presentation of research.
This course is for students in the RMA Musicology; students from Art History, AMRS and MAPS should check with the course coordinator before enrolling. The entrance requirements for Exchange Students will be checked by International Office and the Programme coordinator. You do not have to contact the Programme coordinator by yourself.
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