Events

Performance Practice and Sound Production at the Core of Medieval Music Research

The study of medieval music has a long and established tradition in the field of musicology. Most of the work conducted through the years focuses on the study of manuscripts, repertoires, genres, poetic and musical forms, and composers. Yet, performance practice and sound production are still insufficiently studied at large and even seen with some apprehension. This seems rather incongruous since medieval music with all its compositional elements, its registers, and its preservation in written form was above all conceived as an experience for the ear. The act of performance made this possible, and in that evanescent moment the sacred and secular repertoires of medieval music were articulated and directly disseminated. Thus, performance and sound should undoubtedly be placed at the center of medieval music research since its own foundation and essence are directly connected to them. Fortunately, this realization is encouraging not only more and more musicologists, but also philologists, archeologists, anthropologists, and performers to conduct research on these subjects. Since the information that has survived is fragmentary at best, these researchers have to resort to new interdisciplinary methods that combine traditional positivist musicology with music semiology, musical iconography, performance theories, empirical musicology, musical and experimental archeology, ethnoarcheology, acoustics, and the study of surviving musical instruments.

Following the success of the strand on medieval musicology at the International Medieval Meeting Lleida 2019, in 2020 we are presenting a second edition dedicated to medieval music performance and sound production. This strand will be conducted at the: 10th International Medieval Meeting Lleida 2020, (University of Lleida, Catalonia, 29-30 of June and 1 of July 2020).

Keynote speaker: Elizabeth Eva Leach (University of Oxford)

We invite researchers at all career stages to send abstracts of up to 250 words for 20-minute papers (in English, Spanish, or Catalan), along with a current CV. Abstracts and CVs should be submitted by 29 March 2020