Emotions and Music in Early Fifteenth-Century France

Fifteenth-century European music is beloved by musicians and listeners around the world, and is elemental to the touristic soundscapes of châteaux, churches, and other historic monuments.  But what do our feelings about this music have to do with those intended by its original composers and performers?  Their creations were as rich with emotive implications as are those of more recent times, but at 600 years’ distance, our spontaneous responses are of questionable historical value, and modern research has only begun to address the problematics of reconstructing a fifteenth-century musical sensibility.  The focus of my presentation will be on French song compositions from early in the century, whose beauty, sophistication, and complex emotive dimensions provide a rich but bounded terrain for investigation. 

Speaker

Pr Graeme Boone

LE STUDIUM / MARIE SKŁODOWSKA-CURIE RESEARCH FELLOW

FROM : The Ohio State University - USA

IN RESIDENCE AT: CESR (Centre d’Etudes Supérieures de la Renaissance), CNRS, University François Rabelais of Tours - FR