Musicology with Prof. Karen Desmond

For our last episode in season 3 we are joined by our erudite colleague in the Department of Music, Prof. Karen Desmond to learn how the discipline of musicology contributes to our understanding of medieval history.

We are brought around Europe, Britain and Ireland through the Middle Ages and chat about polyphony, vocal music, plainchant, the motivations for writing music down, and much more.

We discover that the development of music notation can tell us a lot about the connections between communities and how music was created: that a lot of music was not just 'vibes'-based, but used a lot of theory and was a collaborative effort; that music can tell us about the society and communities in which they were produced; and that there were many different kinds of music traditions reflecting local and cultural contexts.

The name of the piece of music featured in the episode is Au cuer ai en mai and the performers are Anonymous 4 from their Love’s Illusion album.

Suggested resources:

- Karen Desmond, Music and the Moderni, 1300-1350: The Ars Nova in Theory and Practice (Cambridge University Press, 2018)

- BROKENSONG project website: https://ahi.maynoothuniversity.ie/brokensong/

- Ann Buckley, 'Music and musicians in medieval Irish society', Early Music, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2, May 2000, 165–192

- Sara Gibbs Casey, ‘Through a glass, darkly’: Steps towards reconstructing Irish chant from the neumes of the Drummond Missal, Early Music, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2, May 2000, 205–216

- John Milson on Josquin and the technique of ’stretto fuga’ (a term Milsom coined) is in the book chapter ‘“Imitatio”, “intertextuality”, and Early Music’ in Citation and Authority in Medieval and Renaissance Music Culture, ed. S. Clark and E. E. Leach (Woodbridge, 2005). 

- Peter Schubert' videos on improvising canons are on YouTube: https://youtu.be/n01J393WpKk?si=dfXshQOGdNJXxlcq

- Check out DIAMM (the Digital Image Archive of Medieval Music) for images of polyphonic medieval music manuscripts: https://www.diamm.ac.uk/

Regular episodes every month (on a Friday)

Email: medievalirishhistory@gmail.com

Producer: Tiago Veloso Silva

Supported by the Dept of Early Irish, Maynooth University & Taighde Éireann/Research Ireland.

Views expressed are the speakers' own.

Logo design: Matheus de Paula Costa

Music: Lexin_Music