Start dates
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In progress, week 5 of 7
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TBA Date to be announced
Watch the trailer
Skip to 0 minutes and 9 secondsWhat happens to music when we write it down?
Skip to 0 minutes and 17 secondsHow did the way we note music evolve through history?
Skip to 0 minutes and 23 secondsAre notes just another scripture?
Skip to 0 minutes and 28 secondsIf you would like to discuss these questions--
Skip to 0 minutes and 34 seconds--and learn how to read ancient music notation from the Middle Ages until the early modern period.
Skip to 0 minutes and 41 seconds
Skip to 0 minutes and 41 secondsIf you would like to discover a piece that might have been sung for the first time in 700 years, especially for this course-- --and understand what a ligature is, a brevis, or a longa, and how to look at ancient music with fresh eyes.
Skip to 1 minute and 5 secondsJoin our course, "From Ink to Sound: Decoding Musical Manuscripts." Coming soon.
About the course
Nowadays music is all around us: we listen to it while we are on our way to work, when preparing lunch or even while showering. All this music is written down in its own language - the notation system. But did you ever wonder where this came from? Have you ever looked at a medieval music manuscript and wondered how to read it?
In this free online course, we will answer the key questions, including:
- What happens to music when we write it down? How did this evolve through history?
- Who wrote down music? And why?
- Which strategies of visualization came into play?
- Are notes just another scripture?
- How does it help us play and listen to music today, if we understand how music was written in earlier times?
Transcribe early music manuscripts
This course will enable you to understand the theoretical and practical principles of reading musical notation from the Middle Ages until the Early Modern Period. We will show you how to decode and transcribe early notational systems. And we will discuss the challenges and principles of music notation, referring to semiotic approaches and visual theory.
Enjoy medieval music
As well as the theoretical and practical parts, this course offers more than 15 recordings of ancient music performances provided by musicians of the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis - the renowned institution for ancient music in Basel. These will give you the opportunity to listen to many of the musical pieces that we will discuss during the seven weeks.
Requirements
The only requirement is that you should know how to read modern musical notation.
This course is intended for professional and non-professional musicians interested in musical paleography and its history, as well as undergraduate students of musicology, historians, philologists, theologians, art historians and semioticians.
During the course, we encourage you to use a feather quill to enjoy the original feeling of writing down music. If you have no quill at hand, you can try building your own or buy one at a stationery stop. A quill, however, is not necessary to follow the course.
Get a personalised, digital and printed certificate
You can buy a Statement of Participation for this course — a personalised certificate in both digital and printed formats — to show that you’ve taken part.
