Scribes of Musical Cultures. Decoding Early Technologies of Music Writing in Latin Europe c. 900–1100

Introduction

From Bach to Beethoven, Verdi to The Beatles, whether elite or popular genres, our collective musical culture was shaped by complex technologies of music writing first invented c. 1200 years ago in western Europe. SCRIBEMUS will elucidate the first spreading of musical notation in Latin Europe, one of the most debated topics in historical musicology since the 19th century.

Project Objectives

The project will address significant lacunae in our understanding of how music scripts were shaped and exchanged within transregional networks of singer-scribes. It will assess how scribes mediated contemporary writing practices and visual culture in the creation of musical notation, as well as the impact of politics and monastic institutions—especially convents—in the first adoption and diffusion of the musical staff.

Methodology

The project's international team will undertake the first large-scale and fully interdisciplinary analysis of hundreds of surviving musical sources across two centuries (c. 900–1100). We will literally read beyond the surface of extant palimpsest manuscripts using multi-spectral imaging and digital processing to reveal a corpus of so-far 'hidden' melodies.

Innovations

SCRIBEMUS will go significantly beyond the state of the art in the field by exploring the scribes' intellectual approaches that guided their graphic representation of sound. This will be achieved through the development of the software NeumSyntax.

Collaboration

We will combine innovative computational musicology and machine learning for the study of early musical notation with vocal performance practice through a collaboration with the music ensemble Dialogos.

Interdisciplinary Approach

In three intersecting work packages, the project will cross the disciplinary boundaries between:

1. Music
2. Latin palaeography
3. Linguistics
4. The study of past musical cultures
5. Computational science

Conclusion

SCRIBEMUS will fundamentally advance our understanding of how early singers developed sophisticated ways to visualize, read, and perform musical sound, changing the course of music history to this day.