New project aims to create database for medieval music and manuscripts
Over the next seven years, Dr. Bain will create an online platform that links and synergizes plainchant databases around the world.
A Medieval Song for the Summer
One of the most famous pieces of music that has survived is a Middle English song about summer: “Sumer is Icumen In”.
The Medieval Superstar: A tale of singing, sexuality and slavery
Today few people would know the name ʿArīb al-Ma’mūnīya. But during her lifetime, she may have been the most famous person in the world.
How did medieval people dance?
Historians have known that medieval people enjoyed dancing, but they did not know exactly how they danced. A book by Robert Mullally is answering a part of this question, detailing one of the most popular dances of the Middle Ages.
Rome and Byzantium in Heavy Metal music, with Jeremy Swist
A conversation with Jeremy Swist on why some heavy metal bands write music about Roman and Byzantine history. Expect “good” and “bad” emperors to be reversed here!
New Medieval Books: Minstrels and Minstrelsy in Late Medieval England
This book examines the careers of professional entertainers between the fourteenth and early sixteenth centuries.
Beyond Love Songs: Troubadours and Cathars
Exploring the theories that support and deny Cathar influence within the troubadours’ compositions.
A Brief History of Musical Notation from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance
There was a time in the history of Western music when notation was in its infancy, and the system with which we are currently familiar looked and functioned very differently than it does now.
The Oud: ‘Never short of melodious song’
Three poems from the 10th century celebrating a musical instrument.
Pain is Salvation: Flagellant Songs in the Middle Ages
The history of flagellant songs will be explored, beginning with their origin among the flagellants in Italy and tracing their transmission and adoption among flagellants in Germany.
Sutton Hoo Lyre has a connection to Central Asia, archaeologist finds
Re-analysis of finds from Soviet-era digs in Kazakhstan has identified a lyre from the 4th century, which matches the type of lyre found at the famous Sutton Hoo early medieval ship burial from 7th century England.
Cologne’s Eleven Thousand Virgins and Hildegard of Bingen: Saint Ursula’s Martyrdom in Legend and Song
In the Middle Ages, the legend of Saint Ursula and her extraordinarily courageous retinue of eleven thousand virgins was, for many writers and artists, a wellspring of inspiration.
The Better Half: Women and Music in the Middle Ages
This talk will survey what we know about women’s lives in general in the Middle Ages, and examine the roles played by some key figures in the composition and patronage of music through image and sound.
Dueling Divas and Celebrity Fandoms in Medieval Samarra
In the 850s, ‘Arib of Samarra had a problem, and her name was Shariya. Shariya likewise had a problem, and her name was ‘Arib.
Medieval Music: Introduction to Gregorian Chant
The origins, legends and early musical notation of Gregorian Chant.
What did Byzantine music sound like? (The answer is more political than you’d expect), with Alexander Lingas
A conversation with Alexander Lingas on the debates surrounding the reconstruction of Byzantine music. We discuss the common origins of western and eastern Christian traditions, when they parted ways, and how both traditions passed through phases of reinvention. Why does the modern performance of Gregorian Chant sound so different from Byzantine chant?
The Life and Liturgy of Saint Birgitta of Sweden
When studying the relationship between women, music, and the medieval church, one of the most influential and prominent figures is Birgitta of Sweden.
The Liturgical Drama of Christmas
An in-depth look at the music of liturgical drama and its role within medieval Christmas celebrations.
Hagia Sophia rediscovered, with Bissera Pentcheva
A conversation with Bissera Pentcheva about the sensory and spiritual experience of Hagia Sophia, where architecture, sound, and light met theology and prayer, based on her book Hagia Sophia: Sound, Space, and Spirit in Byzantium.
How women contributed to the medieval music scene
Could medieval women be musicians? Here are three examples of how they created music in the 13th and 14th centuries.
Buying a medieval manuscript leaf
Watch this video as Bridget Barbara visits the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair and buys a leaf from a fifteenth-century manuscript.
Giving new life to Early Irish and Old Norse through music
The sounds of early medieval languages, including now extinct Early Irish and Old Norse, are to be given new life through a pioneering European research project.
Heavy Metal Meets Byzantium! Contact Between Scandinavia and Byzantium in the Albums ‘The Varangian Way’ (2007) and ‘Stand Up and Fight’ (2011) by the Finnish Band Turisas
The Finnish Heavy Metal band Turisas has focused on the subject of Byzantium and its relations with Scandinavia.
O Fortuna: The story of one of the great poems (and songs) of the Middle Ages
What comes to mind when you think of medieval music?
Project breathing new life into forgotten medieval chants
Trinity College Dublin is involved in an ambitious international cultural heritage project which is bringing back to life forgotten medieval chants and prayers associated with Irish saints such as St Patrick, St Brigit and St Colmcille.