Sunday, April 19, 2020

Women In Music Essays - Medieval Music, Conductus, Las Huelgas Codex

Women In Music History shows that women were not as big of participants in music as men until later in the medieval era. This is due to many obstacles that faced women disabling them from singing, playing any instruments, or even composing music. Although barriers were present, many women and nuns were able to surpass them, and make use of their abilities and skills. In this paper, I will present the role of women as they interacted with polyphony, and as they became scribes, performers, composers, and patrons. Women's involvement with medieval music took a variety of forms; they served at times as audience, as participant, as sponsor, and as creator. The evidence for their roles, like that for their male contemporaries, is sporadic at best. Many musical sources have been lost, and those sources that do survive only occasionally provide composer attributions. Information on specific performances is virtually non-existent, and the references to musical performances gleaned from literary allusions must be read critically. Similarly, a work of art portraying a woman musician may be representational or symbolic, or both. Yet despite these handicaps, modern scholarship reveals many ways in which medieval women were engaged with, and enriched by, the music that flourished around them. Women and Polyphony In at least some convents, women performed polyphony (an extensive discussion of this can be found in Yardley, pp. 24-27). Some of this repertory is preserved in the Las Huelgas codex which stems from the Carthusian monastery for women near Burgos in Northern Spain which housed approximately one hundred nuns and forty choir girls at its prime in the thirteenth century. The manuscript itself contains an extensive collection of polyphony, including three styles of organum: note-against-note, melismatic, and Notre Dame; as well as motets, conductus, tropes, and sequences. Although the manuscript was copied in the fourteenth century, the repertory comes from earlier, especially 1241-1288. The contents of the Las Huelgas Codes is as follows: # 24 polyphonic ordinary movements: 6 2 Kyries and 3 troped Kyries 6 1 troped Gloria 6 1 Credo 6 1 Sanctus and 7 troped Sanctus movements 6 9 troped Agnus Dei movements # 7 polyphonic propers # 31 Benedicamus Domino settings: 6 7 polyphonic settings 6 14 troped polyphonic settings 6 10 troped monophonic settings # 31 Prosae (also known as sequences): 6 11 polyphonic prosae 6 20 monophonic prosae # Modern thirteenth-century genres: 6 59 motets: I 2 four-voice motets I 25 three-voice double motets (with two separate texts in the top voices) I 11 three-voice conductus-motets (with homorhythmic upper voices) I 21 two-part motets 6 17 polyphonic conductus 6 14 monophonic conductus (also known as versus) 6 1 solfeggio The prevalence of polyphony and the heavy use of tropes suggests that this convent, at least, placed a premium on up-to-date musical styles. Other convents may not have had the resources to keep up with the latest musical fashions, but small clusters of polyphonic pieces survive from sixteen different women's convents, suggesting that religious women had at least some interest, and perhaps some training, in composed polyphony. Women as Scribes Women not only read musical books, they also copied them, at least in some instances. While no investigation of women as scribes has been published, evidence for women's roles in scriptoria has been accumulating. It is not known that women's monasteries as well as men's often had active scriptoria. Moreover, an index of colophons from France reveals a significant number of women who signed their scribal works. Though text sources naturally predominate, a few musical sources were signed by women (Colophons, passim). Similarly, though no musical sources survive in her name, Sister Lukardis of Utrecht from the fifteenth century is known to have copied musical manuscripts, because a Dominican friar writes of her activities: She busied herself withwriting, which she had truly mastered as we may see in the large, beautiful, useful choir books which she wrote and annotated for the convent (Edwards, p. 10) Judging by handwriting, notational styles and repertory, a number of unsigned chant manuscripts also stem from the convents in which they were used. Indeed, though relatively few women music scribes are known, many of their sisters may have legacies that hide amongst the unsigned manuscripts of the era. Women as Composers Perhaps the most famous of the medieval women composers is Hildegard of Bingen. Her repertory of sequences and antiphons (sacred songs) stand somewhat outside of the musical

Tuesday, April 14, 2020

College Topics Essay

College Topics EssayIf you are writing a college topics essay, there are some important things to take into consideration when doing so. It will help you not only to write a quality essay, but it will also help your grade and the way you are perceived by the college admissions office.College topics should be discussed in depth. If a college is offering a topic about 'One Tree Hill,' for example, it is best to talk about what this popular television show means to the people who watch it. You should also discuss the many different types of characters that have appeared on the show. This type of topic is definitely something the admissions office will notice.College topics should also be well written, but they should not be overly wordy. College admissions officers will want to see what you have to say, not just the details of it. Use clear and concise language, but be sure to put in enough detail so the admissions officer can understand it. Make sure you are not using too many jargon w ords that they cannot understand.College topics should be carefully planned out and well planned out grammar should be used throughout. Essay topics that do not meet this requirement can sometimes result in a failing grade. That is why it is important to use a proofreading service or professional editor to help with the writing. Not only can this help you make sure you get the best grades possible, but it can also make sure your writing flows properly and you are not using poor grammar.College topics should also be well organized. A good essay should include points you may have omitted and points you did include. This will help you to highlight the points you want to make, as well as the points you want to avoid making.Finally, it is important to read the material before you begin to write your essay. You need to know how a college would take such an essay and how you should approach each section. You should also know how to proofread and how to edit your essay. Your college admissi ons office can help you through this process as well.College topics should always be researched. You should read and re-read the material you want to include. You should study the types of questions and points they are commonly asked. You should also look for articles that are relevant to the topic of your essay and try to learn more about the people who are most well known for it.College topics can be difficult to write about. Keep these tips in mind and you will be on your way to being prepared for your college essay. Good luck!