Signs of Song in Medieval Iberia
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Bristol
Department Name: School of Arts
Abstract
The music of early medieval Iberia presents many mysteries. It is preserved in a notation which indicates melodic shape but not exact
pitch, meaning it cannot be transcribed or sung today. "Signs of Song in Medieval Iberia" (SING) is the first full-length study of two key
aspects of this notation. First, I investigate what performative nuances may be indicated by different musical signs (neumes) that
represent similar melodic contours. Two ascending pitches, for example, can be expressed using nine distinct neumes. By examining
neumed poetic texts, I will determine how and if specific neume shapes correspond with aspects of poetic structure, offering greater
access to the sounding world of early medieval Iberia-its performance of rhythm and timing-than has previously been considered
possible. I begin with close examination of neumed metrical poems in Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional MS 10029 (Azagra codex), a poetry
collection from al-Andalus rarely utilized by musicologists. I then consider poetic chant genres of the Old Hispanic liturgy (~80
chants). Secondly, I study neumes in Azagra that are used, not to denote melody, but as symbols tying words in the main text to
corresponding marginal commentary (like a footnote). Expanding musicological study to include these neumes offers new ways to
understand musical and textual culture: who knew how to write music notation and what they used it for. I will compile a catalog of
other Iberian manuscripts with non-musical neumes, thereby creating a map of Iberian musical literacy. I consider how musical
knowledge was part of literacy, reading, and religious formation, spanning both the northern Christian kingdoms and al-Andalus, the
portion of the Iberian peninsula under Islamic control from c.711 CE. SING thereby advances not only musicology, but paleography,
literary studies, and intellectual and cultural history, including intercultural exchange between Iberia's northern Christian kingdoms
and the Islamicate world.
pitch, meaning it cannot be transcribed or sung today. "Signs of Song in Medieval Iberia" (SING) is the first full-length study of two key
aspects of this notation. First, I investigate what performative nuances may be indicated by different musical signs (neumes) that
represent similar melodic contours. Two ascending pitches, for example, can be expressed using nine distinct neumes. By examining
neumed poetic texts, I will determine how and if specific neume shapes correspond with aspects of poetic structure, offering greater
access to the sounding world of early medieval Iberia-its performance of rhythm and timing-than has previously been considered
possible. I begin with close examination of neumed metrical poems in Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional MS 10029 (Azagra codex), a poetry
collection from al-Andalus rarely utilized by musicologists. I then consider poetic chant genres of the Old Hispanic liturgy (~80
chants). Secondly, I study neumes in Azagra that are used, not to denote melody, but as symbols tying words in the main text to
corresponding marginal commentary (like a footnote). Expanding musicological study to include these neumes offers new ways to
understand musical and textual culture: who knew how to write music notation and what they used it for. I will compile a catalog of
other Iberian manuscripts with non-musical neumes, thereby creating a map of Iberian musical literacy. I consider how musical
knowledge was part of literacy, reading, and religious formation, spanning both the northern Christian kingdoms and al-Andalus, the
portion of the Iberian peninsula under Islamic control from c.711 CE. SING thereby advances not only musicology, but paleography,
literary studies, and intellectual and cultural history, including intercultural exchange between Iberia's northern Christian kingdoms
and the Islamicate world.
Organisations
| Description | Objective 1: I have analysed the full notated hymn repertory where hymns use metrical poetry, meaning that there is a differentiation between short and long Latin syllables to form its structure, thereby allowing me to determine how music notation in connected to these textual structures or not. I determined that music notation was used to indicate poetic structures such as mid-line breaks, line-ends, and basic iambic or trochaic meters. By isolating where small changes are made between subsequent verses of hymn, I have found that certain music notation shapes (neumes) may hold expression or performative nuance (liquescence). These findings can be taken forward by a larger corpus analysis of each neume. I have used the Chant Editing and Analysis Program to do initial searches, but it is outside the scope of the project to look at each instance of a given neume in the entire repertory but could be taken up by future scholars. Objective 2: To date, I have consulted ~80 non-music manuscripts from Iberia c.850-1100. Close to half show the use of neumes (usually simple) as gloss or correction tie-marks in the margins. Unexpectedly, I have found 5-8 chants or partial melodies that have not previously been catalogued in the Old Hispanic chant tradition. This objective is still in data collection phase, but the data promise to allow me to be successful expanding our understanding of musical and textual education and musical and notational transfer. I will continue working with these findings by comparing notational styles to known music manuscripts to get as close as possible to where the writing was done or by a person trained from there, then put this location in comparison with where the codex is thought to be from. Objective 3: Based on the work towards O2, there are already indications that notation styles usually associated with northern Iberia may have been used in al-Andalus as well. I will continue working with these notational analyses and identifying the new melodies. |
| Exploitation Route | Too early to say (award still active) |
| Sectors | Culture Heritage Museums and Collections |
| Title | CEAP Poetic Text Transcription |
| Description | Newly created functionality in the Chant Editing and Analysis Program which allows transcriptions to be coded for their poetic structural properties and thereby to include this information in pattern-matching searches (created by Paul Rouse and funded by this project) |
| Type Of Material | Computer model/algorithm |
| Year Produced | 2025 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | I am beginning to do analysis now determining if musical notation is used in specific ways to correspond with poetic text structure. The functionality will be useful to others working with prose chant as well because it allows for searching by word/syllable stress, which has been of interest in the musical setting of text in chant in many studies. |