Medieval Music Theory in Context

SCHOOL OF MUSIC

BANGOR UNIVERSITY

13-14 July 2012

This summer, scholars will gather at the School of Music, Bangor University
for a discussion of the most recent studies of medieval music theory

I posted a post about the music theory conference I am organinsing with Dr. Christian Leitmeir this summer at Bangor University. Now we have dates and have moved forward with planning. This initial meeting will hopefully be repeated in the future with bigger focus and ambitions to bring schoalrs of medieval music theory together in a collegiate discussion. Contributers to the workshop include Michael Bernhard (Munich), Calvin Bower (Notre Dame), Charles Burnett (Warburg), Gabriela Currie (Minnesota), Andrew Hicks (Cornell), Elzbieta Witkowska-Zaremba (Poland).

After years of relative stagnation, the study of medieval music theory is showing the signs of a vital renaissance. Ironically, it is the marginal status of this field which has reignited this interest: as the study of medieval theory moved from the centre of musicology towards its periphery, scholars have become increasingly aware of its close interconnections with other disciplines, discourses and modes of representing knowledge in medieval culture.

A fresh and manifold approach suffers but from the hindrance that specialists are divided between different disciplines and lack a research infrastructure. Building on a workshop for musicologists in Bangor (July 2011), IMEMS supports an interdisciplinary one-day workshop with the aims to identify common areas of interests, synergies and complementary methodologies among a wider range of medievalists.