Research Guides: MUSC 220: Medieval Music: Women, and Performance (HC): Books

Finding Scholarly Studies in Books

Use the Tripod catalog for your home institution This link opens in a new window This link opens in a new window to look for all books (print and digital) owned by your college as well as the print titles at the other two schools.

The following searches are a sampling of possibilities. To find materials on a topic, try doing a keyword search in the Tripod Catalog to find relevant materials and then use the subject headings assigned to those titles to find more books. Note that all these searches are in the Books+Media channel. In examples #1 and 4 below, using keywords (rather than subjects) will pick up results from chapter titles.

nuns AND (music*OR liturg*) AND (medieval OR "middle ages") [Keyword search]

"courtly love" [Subject] Sorted by newest titles first.

hildegard [Author] AND [saint OR bingen] [Author] Limited to Material Type - Sound Recordings

(medieval OR "middle ages" OR 14th OR 15th) [Keywords] AND (dance* OR dancing) [Subjects]

(gender OR body OR sex*) AND ("middle ages" OR medieval) [Subjects]

** Try opening a search above and replace one of the topics with your research interest.

Selected Books about Medieval Music and Women

Hildegard of Bingen and Musical Reception: The Modern Revival of a Medieval Composer by Jennifer Bain
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Publication Date: 2015-05-14
Since her death in 1179, Hildegard of Bingen has commanded attention in every century. This book , focuses on the moment in the modern era when she began to be considered as a composer. Engaging with the complex political and religious environment in German speaking areas, Bain places the more recent Anglophone revival of Hildegard's music in a broader historical perspective.
Listening to the Sirens: Musical Technologies of Queer Identity from Homer to Hedwig by Judith Peraino
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ISBN: 9780520921740
Publication Date: 2005-10-30
In this study, Judith A. Peraino investigates how music has been used to call into question norms of gender and sexuality in music from the Greeks through the Middle Ages and to the contemporary period. See pages 44-67 for discussions of Hildegard of Bingen and troubadours.
Medieval Cantors and Their Craft: Music, Liturgy and the Shaping of History, 800-1500 by Katie Ann-Marie Bugyis (Editor, )
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Publication Date: 2017-03-17
The men and women who held the office of cantor in cathedrals and monasteries were responsible for calculating the date of Easter and related feasts, for formulating liturgical celebrations, managing the library and preparing manuscripts. See Chapter 8 "Female Monastic Cantors and Sacristans in Central Medieval England: Four Sketches."
Medieval Woman's Song: Cross-Cultural Approaches by Anne L. Klinck (Editor); Ann Marie Rasmussen (Editor); Ruth Mazo Karras (Series edited by)
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ISBN: 1512803812
Publication Date: 2015-08-06
A "woman's song" refers to female-voice poems on the subject of love, typically characterized by simple language, sexual candor, and apparent artlessness. See in particular: "Women's Performance of the Lyric Before 1500" and "Ca no soe joglaresa: Women and Music in Medieval Spain's Three Cultures."
The Oxford Handbook of Music and Medievalism by Stephen C. Meyer (Editor); Kirsten Yri (Editor)
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ISBN: 9780190658441
Publication Date: 2020-03-02
Studies diverse ways in which medievalism - the retrospective immersion in the images, sounds, narratives, and ideologies of the European Middle Ages - powerfully transforms many of the varied musical traditions of the last two centuries. See the essays in Reimagining the medieval Woman.
Performing Piety: Musical Culture in Medieval English Nunneries by Anne Bagnall Yardley
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ISBN: 1403962995
Publication Date: 2008-08-12
Addressing questions about the musical life in English nunneries in the later Middle Ages, Yardley pieces together a mosaic of nunnery musical life, where even the smallest convents sang the monastic offices on a daily basis and many of the larger houses celebrated the liturgy in all of its complexity.
Ringleaders of Redemption: How Medieval Dance Became Sacred by Kathryn Dickason
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Publication Date: 2021-01-01
During the High and Late Middle Ages, Western theologians, liturgists, and mystics not only tolerated dance; they transformed it into a dynamic component of religious thought and practice. Medieval dance helped shape religious identity and social stratification. Medieval romances also coopted sacred dance to give greater significance to courtly love.
Songs of the Women Trouvères by Eglal Doss-Quinby; Joan Tasker Grimbert; Wendy Pfeffer; Elizabeth Aubrey
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Publication Date: 2008-10-01
This anthology brings together the works of women poet-composers, or trouvères, in northern France in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The book includes the Old French texts of 75 compositions, extant music for 18 monophonic songs and 19 polyphonic motets, and English translations.
Uncovering Music of Early European Women (1250-1750) by Claire Fontijn (Editor)
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ISBN: 9781138585621
Publication Date: 2020-05-19
Brings together nine chapters that investigate aspects of female music-making and musical experience in the medieval and early modern periods. Includes essays about a mystic, German nuns, and Italian Renaissance noble women.

Primary Sources

Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index Image Records
Over 500 image records dating from 400-1500 CE along with selected medievalist art from the 19th and 20th centuries. Records include descriptions, bibliography and links to related artwork. Descriptions and data are more detailed for newer records ( #1- #225).
Relevant examples include:
Jewish couples dancing together at a wedding to the accompaniment of musical instruments
Mermaid (detail) from Neptune creating the horse
Religious woman dancing while a friar "plays music"
Singning nuns

Feminae List of Images to Research
Excel list based on material from online image collections, books and articles.

Medieval Christianity in Practice
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Comprising forty-two selections from primary source materials — each translated with an introduction and commentary by a specialist in the field — the collection illustrates the religious cycles, rituals, and experiences that gave meaning to medieval Christian individuals and communities.
Medieval Writings on Secular Women
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Writings from the Middle Ages concerning women, arranged by stages of life from birth and marriage to widowhood and death. Note the brief mention of women making music in The Marriage of Urraca, Spain, c1082.
New Historical Anthology of Music by Women
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Includes music composed by Kassia, Hildegard of Bingen, the Comtessa de Dia and Dame Maroie de Diergnau and Dame Margot.
Songs of the Women Troubadours
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An edition and translation of some 30 poems by the trobairitz, a remarkable group of women poets from the 12th and 13th centuries, who composed in the style and language of the troubadours.
Source Readings in Music History / Oliver Strunk
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V.2 is of particular interest: The Early Christian Period and the Latin Middle Ages / edited by James McKinnon

Resources

Research Topics