At the end of course the student (1) will be able to understand music written in neumatic notations and in Medieval and Renaissance mensural systems, (2) will be aware of the musicological debate that has been developing on the same topics in the last fifty years.
Course Prerequisites
Bases of music theory. Reading music scores in modern and ancient clefs.
Teaching Methods
Lectures; guided transcriptions of Medieval and Renaissance music notations.
Assessment Methods
Oral examination verifying the acquired skills and the confidence with course’s topics, reference bibliography and theory writings.
Texts
S. CORBIN – M. VELIMIROVIC – M. HELFFER, Neumatic Notation, § III.1, in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, vol. 13, London, Macmillan, 1980, pp. 128-145. W. APEL, La notazione della musica polifonica dal X al XVII secolo, trad. it. di P. Neonato, Firenze, Sansoni, 1984, pp. 89-212 (orig. ed.: Die Notation der polyphonen Musik. 900–1600, Leipzig, Breitkopf und Härtel, 1970) M.-N. COLETTE – M. POPIN – PH. VENDRIX, Histoire de la notation du Moyen Âge à la Renaissance, Paris, Minerve, 2003 (Parts 2-3) TH. F. KELLY, Capturing Music. The Story of Notation, New York, W.W. Norton, 2014 (capp. 3-7). Further bibliography and facsimiles will be provided during the course.
Contents
Part 1. The neumatic notations of gregorian chant. Part 2. The history of notations in polyphonic repertories of the Middle Ages from Ars antiqua to Ars subtilior (XII-XIV century). Part 3. The white mensural notation in the Renaissance period, particularly from fifteenth- to first half of sixteenth-century. Reading of related theory writings and analysis of excerpts from important sources.
Course Language
Italian
More information
ATTENDING / NON-ATTENDING STUDENTS
Attending classes is highly recommended. Non-attending students are requested to contact the professor at an early stage in order to define an alternative programme.
TEACHING METHODS
Teaching will be carried out in person for all students. Some inclusive teaching methods will be implemented during the course, on request, for certain categories of students (see https://www.unipv.news/notizie/modalita-didattiche-lezioni-ed-esami-il-prossimo-anno-accademico-20232024). In this regard, ad hoc online office hours and multimedia resources will be available on Kiro. Students interested in inclusive teaching must report their status in advance.
