This one-day intensive is designed to introduce various repertoires from many different medieval song traditions, as well as some of the memorisation processes and techniques used for narrative expression in medieval song. It will also be useful to participants seeking to complement a daily or weekly liturgical chant practice.

Following an introduction to the basics of reading square notation and interpreting basic St. Gall neumes, students will get a chance to sing from primary sources which will be prepared in a way to make singing directly from the manuscript enjoyable and accessible. The workshop will offer participants the possibility for individual work as well as group singing. The selection of pieces of varying levels of complexity will be sent to the students in the weeks preceding the workshop.

Although primarily aimed at singers interested in medieval music, instrumental participation is more than welcome, as well as instrumentalists who have experience or an interest in medieval music.

WORKSHOP OUTLINE
Sessions: 4x90mins; tea breaks with a longer break for lunch
✴ Study of medieval monophonic and polyphonic musical examples from two medieval musical sources from Germanic lands which display a link to Irish culture:

- München, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Clm 5539,
- Wiesbaden, Hessische Landesbibliothek, Hs.2 (‘Riesenkodex’),

✴ Work on memorisation techniques as transmitted in medieval pedagogical treatises,

✴ Work on techniques for greater narrative expression in medieval song first explored on the level of monophonic singing, later expanded to exploring these principles in 2-part polyphony,

✴ Work on pronunciation of Germanic Latin,

✴ Exploring a transition from singing from a score-based performance edition to a text-based performance edition specifically making use of St. Gall neumes as a mnemonic aid.