Cambridge University Library (the UL) | Singing Boethius’ Lost Songs: Introduction. Part 1 @CamUniLib | Uploaded July 2020 | Updated October 2024, 4 hours ago.
#Boethius #Medievalmusic #UniversityofCambridge
The prospect of recovering the music of lost songs of the distant past is tantalising, even more so when traces survive in unfamiliar notations that cannot be fully reconstructed. This is the case for much of the early medieval Latin song repertory, which has long been considered lost because the notational signs employed record only melodic outlines, relying on oral traditions that have now died out to supply missing details.
Research conducted by Dr Sam Barrett of the University of Cambridge, in collaboration with the Medieval Ensemble Sequentia, has enabled the reconstruction of part of this repertoire. This series of videos introduces some of these reconstructed songs from Boethius' sixth-century De consolatione philosophiae (On the Consolation of Philosophy), one of the most widely read books of the Middle Ages. A single source, the ‘Cambridge Songs’ Leaf, held in Cambridge University Library, is taken as a focus for exploration.
The opening video introduces the project. Six subsequent short videos allow the viewer to follow the notation (neumes) in the manuscript as the melody for the opening lines of each song notated on the leaf is sung in turn.
More information about the processes of reconstruction and how to read neumes is provided on the project website.
1. Introduction
2. Carmina qui quondam
3. Heu quam praecipiti
4. Tunc me discussa
5. Quisquis composito
6. O stelliferi conditor orbis
7. Nubibus atris
boethius.mus.cam.ac.uk
sequentia.org
cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-GG-00005-00035/906
mus.cam.ac.uk/directory/sam-barrett
#Boethius #Medievalmusic #UniversityofCambridge
The prospect of recovering the music of lost songs of the distant past is tantalising, even more so when traces survive in unfamiliar notations that cannot be fully reconstructed. This is the case for much of the early medieval Latin song repertory, which has long been considered lost because the notational signs employed record only melodic outlines, relying on oral traditions that have now died out to supply missing details.
Research conducted by Dr Sam Barrett of the University of Cambridge, in collaboration with the Medieval Ensemble Sequentia, has enabled the reconstruction of part of this repertoire. This series of videos introduces some of these reconstructed songs from Boethius' sixth-century De consolatione philosophiae (On the Consolation of Philosophy), one of the most widely read books of the Middle Ages. A single source, the ‘Cambridge Songs’ Leaf, held in Cambridge University Library, is taken as a focus for exploration.
The opening video introduces the project. Six subsequent short videos allow the viewer to follow the notation (neumes) in the manuscript as the melody for the opening lines of each song notated on the leaf is sung in turn.
More information about the processes of reconstruction and how to read neumes is provided on the project website.
1. Introduction
2. Carmina qui quondam
3. Heu quam praecipiti
4. Tunc me discussa
5. Quisquis composito
6. O stelliferi conditor orbis
7. Nubibus atris
boethius.mus.cam.ac.uk
sequentia.org
cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-GG-00005-00035/906
mus.cam.ac.uk/directory/sam-barrett
