Course goals
At the completion of this course, students:
- are able to engage critically with advanced scholarly literature about pre-modern music;
- are acquainted with specific research techniques and methodologies appropriate to pre-modern source materials and musical forms of expression;
- can apply concepts and methods of analysis to specific case studies;
- will be able to carry out research tasks and report on their findings both orally and in writing about pre-modern music.
Content
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 early modern Europe as transmitted to us in a wide range of sources. We start with an introduction to 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 their 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, women and musical patronage, urban soundscapes in early modern Europe, music and the culture of print, and historically informed performance practice.
The ability to read music notation is required.
Additional information
This course is mandatory for students in the RMA Musicology. The course is open for students from Ancient, Medieval and Renaissance Studies. Students from the RMA programmes Art History, AMRS, Philosophy, Nederlandse literatuur en cultuur, Gender Studies and MAPS must contact the course coordinator for permission 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.
Please note: the time slot shown here is not yet final, and may still be modified until the third Wednesday in September.
Career orientation:
Training in written and oral presentation of research.