IMPORTANT NOTICE!

While the North Beach Lectura Dantis meets every Wednesday at 7:30pm, my presentation on Music in the Time of Dante will begin at 7:15pm, as per National Shrine of St. Francis of Assisi policy (lectures always start at 7:15, so folks get used to regular starting times. Makes sense to me). I am glad that one of the friars showed me the poster!

So, for those of you planning on attending, please note the time change.

In preparing for this, I realized that my approach is sort of like a drunken darts tosser: I am starting in the 20th/21st centuries in America, bouncing back to 10th century Paris, eventually finding myself in a dark wood somewhere between Florence and Ravenna in the middle of our lives. It should be fun, and I will answer questions afterwards.

I am trying to decide what to post in advance on the blog. Perhaps detailed notes, perhaps something more like a paper, perhaps just a transcript of what I plan to say. I will certainly post all the bibliographic information here, for those who are interested in digging deeper. If any of you have a preference, I will try to accomodate.

There is also the tricky issue of how much detail to go into in the nuts and bolts of music. Some folks will want excess and some will want only the most general terms. It is a tricky balance. Some folks will roll their eyes into their heads and start snarling at the mention of "perfect tempus and imperfect prolation."

Needless to say I have been spending more time with that great resource, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, a reference work only a true music geek could love. Every home ought to have one (at least to have something to store in the harpsichord that every home ought to have as well).

So, if there are gaps in the blogging record, it is not because of my secretary's careless foot, rather that I am sifting, sorting, organizing and generally immersing myself in the world of ancient music (and I will not tolerate folks calling it "pre-music").

So far it looks something like this:

1. The difficulties of understanding what Italian music of this period actually sounded like. Musicological Sherlock Holmes!

2. General trends in music from the School of Notre Dame to the emergence of the Italian Ars Nova.

3. How Dante used musical imagery in the Commedia, with particular emphasis on Paradiso.

4. Questions, answers, evasions.

5. Tony and Nick's drinking Scotch. Feel free to bring the conversation over there.

Posted by erik at October 12, 2003 1:43 AM | TrackBack