Ohio State welcomes guest musicologist David Catalunya, University of Würzburg, Germany. He presents "Early 14th-century Controversies on Music: New Sources, New Insights."
We have long known that the music history of the early fourteenth century in Western Europe was characterized by conflict and controversy regarding musical innovation. One of the most vivid debates concerned the appropriateness of performing elaborate polyphony in the context of liturgical celebrations. The famous bull Docta sanctorum patrum promulgated by Pope John XXII in 1324, in which liturgical polyphony was officially restricted, represents only one of a series of attempts to curb the liberties taken by singers when performing church music. The recent discovery of new musical sources from the early fourteenth century in Spain, France and Germany provides valuable clues to these controversies, as well as to the singers’ reactions to the restrictions.
In this lecture, Catalunya will present some of the recently discovered manuscripts, describing their historical and sociological context. This new panorama of sources reveals hitherto unknown inter-monastic connections and links between 'peripheral' religious centers, thus re-mapping the transmission of early ars nova motets and sacred repertoire.
David Catalunya holds a research position at the University of Würzburg (Germany). He is a co-editor of the volumes devoted to 12th century Latin songs in the monumental series Corpus Monodicum, an Associated Director of DIAMM (Digital Image Archive of Medieval Music, Oxford Faculty of Music), and a member of the research board at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Specializing in the study of musical manuscripts from the 12th to the 15th centuries, he has recently published on the discovery of new musical sources from the 14th century. He is currently preparing the introductory study to the facsimile edition of the manuscript British Library Add 36881, a manuscript transmitting 12th century Aquitanian polyphony, for DIAMM Publications.
March 4 : Catalunya presents concert, "From Faenza to Buxheim: Keyboard Music of the Fifteenth Century" (see Clavisimbalum).
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