The Music of the Medieval Body in Pain
In the fifteenth-century Passion d’Auvergne, the rounding up of martyrs for persecution inspires torturer Maulbec to teach his cronies the words of a hunting song which imitates the cries of wounded animals.
“A Furore Normannorum, Libera Nos Domine!” A Short History of Going Berserk in Scandinavian Literature and Heavy Metal
The following essay aims to portray the history of the motif from Old Norse literature to its presence in today’s culture and particularly in heavy metal music. I aim to show how the motif is used to act as both a channel for aggression and as social criticism.
Singing the Self: the Autobiography of the fifteenth-century German singer and composer Johannes von Soest
Johannes von Soest (also referred to as Steinwart or Steinwert) was a German singer, composer and poet. He is the author of a vernacular autobiography in couplets which is not only one of the few examples of late medieval German autobiography but also one of the very few surviving autobiographical documents written by a musician in this period.
Musical Characteristics of the Songs Attributed to Peter of Blois (c. 1135-1211)
Toward the end of the twelfth century, moral conflict was rampant in the Catholic Church regarding the conduct (and misconduct) of all levels of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, though especially at the two extremes on the scale of power. Music and literature from the period have immortalized the mischievous and impious escapades of certain members of the lower orders of clergy, termed satirically the ordo vagorum.
Women in Troubadour Song: Of the Comtessa and the Vilana
Since we have melodies for both songs, the question of what “feminine” voices we are hearing is a musi- cal as well as a poetic issue.
Sine Nomine: Ensemble for Medieval Music
Profile of the Toronto-based quartet Sine Nomine, with two videos from a recent performance.
The Geese Book – medieval manuscript now available online
One of the most interesting manuscripts of the late Middle Ages is now available online – The Geese Book, a lavishly and whimsically illuminated, two-volume liturgical book, can now be accessed through a project from the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies.
Kassia: A female hymnographer of the 9th century
It’s obvious that the Byzantine female hymnography was not flourished especially in Byzantium.
Organa doctorum: Gerbert of Aurillac, organbuilder?
He was born a peasant. Yet, through intelligence, political skill and uncommon good luck he came to be one of the most influential people in the Europe of his time…Pope Sylvester II.
The castrati: a physician’s perspective
The phenomenon of the castrati enters the history of Western music in the latter half of the 16th century, becoming a dominant factor in Italian music through most of the 17th and 18th centuries, and then gradually fading during the 19th century.
The Naples L’homme arme masses, Burgundy and the Order of the Golden Fleece: The origins of the L’homme arme tradition
The six anonymous L’Homme arme masses in naples MS VI E 40, of the Biblioteca Nazionale, have prompted heated debate concerning their genesis since Dragan Plamenac discovered them in 1925.
From Jongleur to Minstrel: The Professionalization of Secular Musicians in Thirteenth- and Fourteenth-Century Paris
This study asks: how did jongleurs professionalize over the course of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries and incorporate themselves into society as legitimate, productive members?
“Los motz e.l so”: Words, Melody, and Their Interaction in the Songs of Folquet de Marseille
In this dissertation I delve into the songs of the late twelfth-century troubadour Folquet de Marseille whose thirteen songs surviving with their melodies provide a varied collection of a suitable size to permit intensive analysis of poetic and musical compositional practices and the interactions between the two.
Between Byzantium and Venice: Western Music in Crete
Were there orchestras, and which was their place in the life of the Catholic or Byzantine Churches? On the other hand, to what extent was the organ used in the liturgical space and by whom?
The Construction of the femina in Hildegard’s Symphonia
The architectural metaphor used throughout Hildegard’s Symphonia is not an isolated or independent occurrence; rather it is deeply rooted in her theology.
A Cluniac Office of the Dead
The office of the dead has become a familiar portion of the divine office to anyone who studies chant, but this is the limit of most research. Although Cluny maintained a reputation for its frequent celebration of the office of the dead, the Cluniac office of the dead has only been mentioned in passing in many chant studies.
Creativity, the trickster, and the cunning harper king: A study of the minstrel disguise entrance trick in “King Horn” and “Sir Orfeo”
What does a hero do when he finds himself in an impossible situation where customary tactics are useless; magic is not in the cards, and divine intervention unlikely? He could give up. Or he could use cunning. In both King Horn and Sir Orfeo, the hero wiggles out of just such a squeeze by using a minstrel disguise entrance trick—a sort of musical Trojan horse for which the enemy’s closely guarded gates swing open in welcome.
Filippino Lippi and Music
Filippino belongs to that stream of later Quattrocento Florentine painting in which topographical accuracy and careful attention to detail was particularly valued.4 He included musical images, mostly instruments, in a number of his works: some are clearly realistic representations of contemporary instruments, others are obviously intended to be symbolic; occasionally the two types are found in a single work.
Bach and the Middle Ages
Are there discernible historical roots or clearly perceived analogies that explicitly relate Bach’s music to the Middle Ages?
Authentic performance of troubadour melodies
Ancient Rome is remembered as one of the greatest military powers in history, its fame derived from the fearsome reputation of the empire’s legionnaires. Lost in the telling, however, is the important role that espionage played in Rome’s ascent to empire
Guillaume de Machaut’s “Messe de Nostre Dame” in the context of fourteenth-century polyphonic music for the Mass Ordinary
It is a contention of this thesis that, among these sources of fragmentary or whole (that is, five- or six- movement), Mass cyles, a historical context may be found for the Messe de Nostre Dame, a work which has traditionally been approached as though is possessed no such context.
The Libro de la Regla Vieja of the Cathedral of Seville as a Musicological Source
The significance of this regla de coro to Seville’s pre-Tridentine use prompted me to seek here a deeper understanding of the book, and especially the textual transmission of its contents, confusion over which has led, hitherto, to most of the difficulties and errors concerning its dating.
A historiographical and artistic survey of confraternities from the later Middle Ages to the early Renaissance
Overall, the analysis will allow for a closer examination of not just the culture of a particular confraternity, but also the cultural values, ideals, and practices of an entire community in one period of time. Furthermore, the examination of confraternal artwork will prove important, as it will demonstrate the unique power of confraternities.