Unit name | Medieval Music Palaeography |
---|---|
Unit code | MUSIM0044 |
Credit points | 20 |
Level of study | M/7 |
Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
Unit director | Professor. Hornby |
Open unit status | Open |
Pre-requisites |
none |
Co-requisites |
none |
School/department | Department of Music |
Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
This unit will introduce students to the editorial challenges presented by medieval musical notations. We will discuss concepts such as ‘philology’ and ‘critical interpretation’, and present the methodological issues related to the creation of a modern edition from an early music score. Different kinds of medieval musical notation will be presented and discussed in detail. The students will be actively engaged with the interpretation and transcription of medieval music throughout the course.
Aims:
The students will gain familiarity with and experience of reading primary sources of medieval music. They will look closely at, analyse and transcribe some medieval notations. By the end of the course they will be able to comment critically on the information given by an early music score using the correct terminology
On successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:
Weekly 2-hour classes, focused on weekly assignments and developing the skills for the upcoming portfolio.
One tutorial on the portfolio submission
In each case, the commentary relates directly to the transcription exercise at hand, explaining the relationship between the source material and the transcription decisions made.
Bent, Margaret, ‘The Grammar of Early Music: Preconditions for Analysis’, in Tonal Structures in Early Music, ed. Cristle Collins Judd (Garland Publishing, Inc., 1998)
Hiley David, ‘Notation’, in Western Plainchant - A Handbook (Clarendon Press: Oxford, 1993), pp. 340-401
Levy, Kenneth, ‘On the origin of neumes’, Early Music History 7 (1987), pp. 59-90
Rankin, Susan, ‘On the Treatment of Pitch in Early Music Writing’, Early Music History 30 (2011), pp. 105-75
Rastall, Richard, The Notation of Western Music: an introduction (London, Melbourne, Toronto: J.M. Dent, 1983)
Treitler, Leo, With voice and pen: coming to know medieval song and how it was made (Oxford University Press, 2003)