Dr. Mauricio Molina, Cristina Alís Raurich, José Pizarro, and Dr. Valerie A. Wilhite

The monophonic song was one of the most important vehicles of expression in Medieval Western Europe. It functioned both as a channel to communicate ideas and feelings, and as a platform for the artistic development of poetry and music. But the song, with all its discursive and aesthetic potential, did not achieve its final form until it was made “tangible” through the evanescent act of the performance.

The purpose of the summer course Manuscript to Performance is to examine the medieval song as a communicative experience whose rich and carefully composed poetic-musical structure was ultimately shaped by performance. In this course the song will be studied from philological, musicological and performative perspectives to ensure a comprehensive understanding of its great expressive-aesthetic capacities. Different theories of composition and practice recorded in medieval sources and developed by modern scholars will be reviewed and discussed.

The course will also provide students with the possibility of experiencing a performance reconstruction of different songs utilizing the elements discussed in the different classes.

The course is open to musicians, musicologists, philologists, medievalists, historians, and anyone interested in medieval culture. Knowledge about music history, music notation, or experience with performance is helpful but not essential.

All classes in English

The Manuscript to Performance Program is composed of the following classes:

Gathering the Medieval Song: Poetic Text, Melody, and Song Construction

Materializing the Song I: Performance Theories

The Song in the Medieval Pythagorean-Boethian Universe

The Song and the Voice

Materializing the Song II: Constructing Performance with Voices and Instruments

Schedule:

http://www.medievalmusicbesalu.com/schedule-2016/#manuscript

More Info:

http://www.medievalmusicbesalu.com/manuscript-to-performance-materializing-the-song/