GBST 231
Music in the Global Middle Ages, ca. 500-1500 Spring 2024
Division II Writing Skills
Cross-listed MUS 235
This is not the current course catalog

Spanning 1000 years, the period encompassing the Middle Ages (ca. 500-1500) was a time of experimentation, exploration, and growing interconnection around the world. From economic expansions to developing trade routes and from violent religious crusades to flourishing universities, cities, and courts, opportunities for cultural investment and exchange among regions in Western Europe, North Africa, and Central and East Asia were plentiful, if not always peaceful. In this seminar, we will consider how a global historical perspective shifts our understanding of music in the Middle Ages from one based on hegemonic European progress in isolation to one that reveals a multitude of influences, interactions, and interconnections among people of various cultures, races, and religions both within and outside of the European continent. In this tutorial, we will investigate a series of case studies in order to address how and where these global interconnections took place and what musical practices flourished as a result. We will give special consideration to the following topics: orality and literacy, race and difference, the politics of religion, economic power, and manuscript culture. In grappling with these topics, students will engage in weekly readings on musical and broader historical topics, listening and score analysis of key repertory in modern transcription, and study of original notation through manuscript facsimiles.