Teaching Medieval Music Today: New Approaches to Paleography and Music History

Cesarino Ruini

doi:10.6092/issn.2039-9715/6569

Teaching Medieval Music Today: New Approaches to Paleography and Music History

Autori

Cesarino Ruini http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4919-4486
Cesarino Ruini is full Professor of History of Medieval and Renaissance Music and Musical Palaeography at University of Bologna. He has done research, and has published widely on Medieval music treatises and the tradition of liturgical chants in the Latin church. Currently, he is member of the Editorial board of the «Saggiatore musicale» and general editor of “Le regole della musica”, a series devoted to the translation with parallel text and commentary of the major medieval music tratises (Florence, Le Edizioni del Galluzzo).

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.2039-9715/6569

Parole chiave:

Medieval music, Pedagogy, Guido of Arezzo, Music history teaching

Abstract

Besides a tendency to abstractness, inherent in the technical nature of the subject itself, a common problem in the teaching of medieval music history is how to awaken the interest of learners in matters that are so far back in time as to have nothing in common with modern sensibility. Referring to the introduction of the staff by Guido of Arezzo in the 11^th century, the article tries to explain how, by aptly combining chronologically organized descriptions of facts with a basic study of documents (that is, by adopting the rudiments of the research methods used by expert historians), students can be encouraged to reconstruct history with a strict method. This approach also sheds light on the reasons why men and women of the past adopted certain innovations or kept certain traditions alive.

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Pubblicato

2016-12-30

Come citare

Ruini, C. (2016). Teaching Medieval Music Today: New Approaches to Paleography and Music History. Musica Docta, 6(1), 69–76. https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.2039-9715/6569