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SUMMARY:'Capturing sounds\, designing notation\, writing music' - Prof. Su
 san Rankin\, University of Cambridge
DTSTART:20150429T160000Z
DTEND:20150429T173000Z
UID:TALK59258@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:39522
DESCRIPTION:Systems of musical notation invented in the early middle ages 
 form a basis for later western notations: the line from these to the twent
 y-first century is unbroken (unlike the notations of Greek antiquity\, or 
 the more recent notations of other cultures)\, even if the needs of later 
 periods were not at all like those experienced between 800 and 900.  How t
 he makers of those early notations heard articulated musical sound\, into 
 what separate elements they chose to break it down\, and which of these el
 ements were then recorded in writing are all questions of relevance to any
 one interested in notations and in those ways in which makers of music com
 municate their ideas.\n\nIt was certainly in the hundred years between 800
  and 900 that musical notation consisting of 'neumes' was first invented a
 nd then developed to an eventually quite complex system: the most refined 
 notations (visible in writing of circa 900) can be described as written re
 cords of melodic rhetoric\, reflecting typical Carolingian concerns with c
 larity of expression.  The extent to which these notations had been render
 ed capable of carrying subtlety of meaning as well as calligraphically sty
 lish has prompted me to consider how such ways of writing music had been a
 chieved by 900.\n\nJuxtaposition of those various types of musical notatio
 n which are visible by circa 900 allows examination of their graphic relat
 ions\, of what is graphically similar or dissimilar\, and their sharing of
  techniques for modifying basic signs.  Using a strict methodology of comp
 arison\, it has been possible to work out stages of influence and exchange
  between these notations\, allowing new perceptions of what came first and
  how it was then changed.  And most of the conclusions have surprised me\,
  since they were so unsuspected!  This exploration of early neumatic notat
 ions has led to an explanation of how and why this variety of musical scri
 pts was developed during the ninth century—a period which has hitherto r
 emained rather obscure in histories of musical notation\, despite its supr
 eme interest.  \n\n\nSusan Rankin holds a personal chair in the University
  of Cambridge as ‘Professor of Medieval Music’. She was educated at th
 e universities of Cambridge\, King’s College London and Paris (École Pr
 atique des Hautes Études\, IVeme section). Her scholarly work engages wit
 h music of the middle ages through its sources and notations and through i
 ts place and meaning within ritual. Those ways in which music was exploite
 d as an element within church ritual\, and especially in dramatic ceremoni
 es\, have formed a long-term focus of study. A second focus has been the p
 alaeography of musical sources copied at Sankt Gallen in the early middle 
 ages. Most recently she has edited a facsimile of the early eleventh-centu
 ry ‘Winchester Troper’ (Cambridge\, Corpus Christi College MS 473)\, d
 emonstrating to what extent it is possible to transcribe the earliest Euro
 pean repertory of two-part polyphony. In Spring 2007 she gave the Lowe lec
 tures at the University of Oxford entitled ‘Impressed on the Memory: Mus
 ical Sounds and Notations in the Ninth Century’\, and this forms the bas
 is of her current project while based at the Institute for Advanced Study\
 , Princeton. She was elected fellow of the British Academy in 2009.\n
LOCATION:Recital Room\, Faculty of Music
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