Unit information: Monastic Cultures in 2013/14

Unit name	Monastic Cultures
Unit code	MUSI29011
Credit points	20
Level of study	I/5
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24)
Unit director	Professor. Hornby
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	Department of Music
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

This unit will provide an overview of the contribution of archaeology and music to the cultures of western monasticism, focussing on the Middle Ages. On the archaeological side, it will focus particularly on the survey and excavation of sites, buildings and landscapes, and their associated material culture, On the musical side, the characteristics of liturgy and liturgical books will form a background to discussion of the musical language used for chant, and the genres within which it is organised. The two disciplines will come together in understanding spaces, as not just empty places but also as soundscapes within these complex institutions. The module will be organised through the archaeological and musical characteristics associated with the desert fathers, the Benedictines, the new orders of Augustinians, Cistercians and Carthusians, and the mendicant orders of Dominicans and Franciscans. Female cloistered piety will also form a part of our investigations. This unit aims:

• to give students an opportunity to expand the breadth of their historical knowledge of medieval music and archaeology, with particular reference to monasticism
• to expand their knowledge of the associated musical repertoire and to be able to comment accurately and perceptively on matters of style and structure
• to provide an understanding of the significance of excavations, landscape studies, building archaeology and material culture
• to develop students’ ability to assemble and assimilate information from a wide variety of sources
• to engage in critical evaluation of texts and artefacts about both music and archaeology
• to develop effective and detailed arguments, both aurally and in writing
• to display competence in the practices, processes, techniques and methodologies that underpin EITHER musicological OR archaeological practice (and to demonstrate an appreciation for those practices, processes, techniques and methodologies in the ‘foreign’ discipline)

Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of the module, students are expected to (1) have an integrated understanding of the ways in which archaeological and musical evidence interact in our understanding of medieval monastic cultures (2) good knowledge of the historical, political, economic and social contexts in which the monastic buildings and artefacts (including musical ones) came into being (3) write critically and perceptively about the archaeology and/or music of medieval monasticism, using appropriate language and terminology

Teaching Information

6 x 2-hour lecture-discussion sessions; 2 x 1-hour lecture-discussion sessions; 4 x 1-hour seminars. These will comprise paired presentations prepared by BA students and single (assessed) presentations prepared by MA students, plus follow-up discussion and feedback. Each session will be chaired and led by one of Emma Hornby, Mark Horton, or a postgraduate teaching assistant, with each teacher spending at least one session with each group. Max seminar size 15

Assessment Information

All the assessment is summative:

Level I: 1) Essay (general topic). 2500 words (50%) 2) Essay (specific topic, relating to a particular site, church, manuscript, musical genre, artefact, or group of artefacts) 2500 words (50%).

The first essay will demonstrate a more limited knowledge of (1) and (2). The second essay will use (3) to demonstrate (1) and (2).

Reading and References

Stalley, Roger, 1999. Early Medieval Architecture. OUP Blair J. 2005 The Church in Anglo Saxon Society. Sarah Foot 2006 Monastic Life in Anglo-Saxon England 600 - 900 David Hiley, Gregorian chant (Cambridge, 2009) John Harper, The Forms and Orders of the Western Liturgy (Oxford, 1991) David Hiley, Western Plainchant: A handbook (Oxford, 1991)