April sunshine inspires glorious scholarly activities...

It is hard to believe that my calendar tells me it is May already.  April proved to be an exciting month of traveling and researching on the 'continent' which I very much enjoyed.  My visit to Charles University (Prague) was very inspiring as I participated in seminars which discussed the music of Gallus, de Monte and de Kerle, all of whom worked for Emperor Rudolph II in the 16th century.  The seminars were interspersed with excursions to Rudolph's castle, the Rudolphinum to hear the Czech Philharmonic perform Beethoven I & VII, the Strahov monastery to see the Strahov Manuscript,  and a day trip to Kutna Hora. To finish off our ten days, current research was presented through a one day conference attracting prominent 16th-century scholars from around Europe.  I presented two different papers during my time in Prague: one which summerised my current Ph.D research and another which explored the significance of Johannes Kepler's Harmonice mundi in the history of Western music theory.  Amongst these great academic studies, we made sure to enjoy all that Prague had to offer: good food, good wine and some good beer.  Just walking the streets of Prague was a great delight as you could feel history oozing out of each street corner and building, beckoning to be discovered at each turn in the road.  

I hope to return to Prague very soon, yes very soon indeed!

in Kutna Hora