The Musical Humanism of the Renaissance and its Legacy

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“The Musical Humanism of the Renaissance and its Legacy”

Conference details:
Warwick in Venice, 2-4 June 2016

Theme: In modern Western culture, music is often defined as the art of feeling or the language of the soul. This conception of music has its origins in the musical humanism of the Renaissance, whose influence on musical thought was as enduring as it was widespread. Even though Renaissance humanism had no concrete link to the musical practice of antiquity, humanistic concerns were pivotal for the development of contemporary music and musical thought. Ancient and medieval stories about musical ethos, in particular about the power of music to move the passions, were of special interest to Renaissance scholars. This conference will investigate these Renaissance conceptions of the connection between music and mind, their origins, and how they were ultimately developed into our modern notion of music as an expressive art.

For more information, please contact us at j.w.prins@warwick.ac.uk.

Jacomien Prins
Centre for the Study of the Renaissance (CSR)
University of Warwick, IAS, Millburn House
Coventry CV4 7HS

t.: +44 (0)24 765 73639
e.: j.w.prins@warwick.ac.uk
e-Portfolio: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/ren/about_us/centrestaff/researchfellows/prins/


https://www.facebook.com/jacomien.prins ~ @JacomienPrins

International Research Symposium: Hearing the Voice, Hearing the Soul

5th June 2015, 9.30am-6.30pm at Warwick University, the Institute of Advanced Study (IAS), Millburn House, Millburn Hill Road, Coventry

Symposium theme
Just as music has fascinated scholars in the Western world continuously for thousands of years, so time and again they have felt the need to explain its power. During the Renaissance a revival of interest for ancient theories about the power of music began. Many philosophers, humanists and music theorists writing about music found themselves caught in the Plato-Aristotle controversy. They had to make a choice between two radically different theories of the constitution of the human soul: a Platonic one, originating from the Timaeus, which stated that music has a great influence on the human soul because they are somehow similar, and an Aristotelian one, originating from On the Soul, which did not postulate any special relationship between music and the soul. Privileging one philosophical model over the other brought along entirely different beliefs about the nature of music, what it does, or what it should do. The body of doctrine around these two sources, combined with Christian ideas about music and the soul and all kinds of medical and music-theoretical ideas was pervasive till the beginning of the seventeenth century. And yet, by the beginning of the eighteenth century, to learn about music’s power meant turning not to these ancient sources and their reception, but to works on the soul such as Descartes Passions of the Soul and Hobbes’ Human Nature. The purpose of this symposium is to track and to interrogate the nature, life span, and eventual radical transformation and/or demise of ancient, medieval, and Renaissance conceptions of the belief in music’s deep connections with human life.

Please note that registration is open for the following symposium.

Delegates may view the programme and register here 

Queries: j.w.prins@warwick.ac.uk

The conference is part-funded by the Royal Music Association (RMA), and is supported by the University of Warwick’s Humanities Research Centre (HRC), Institute of Advanced Study (IAS), and Centre for the Study of the Renaissance (CSR).

Jacomien Prins
IAS Global Research Fellow
Centre for the Study of the Renaissance (CSR)
University of Warwick, IAS, Millburn House
Coventry CV4 7HS
United Kingdom

e.: j.w.prins@warwick.ac.uk
w.: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/ren/about_us/centrestaff/researchfellows/prins/

Echoes of an invisible world:
http://www.brill.com/products/book/echoes-invisible-world

CALL FOR PAPERS: Johannes Tinctoris and Music Theory in the Late Middle Ages and Early Renaissance

9–10 October 2014
Chancellor’s Hall, Senate House, University of London

Keynote Speaker: Dr Stefano Mengozzi (University of Michigan), ‘Johannes Tinctoris, the Ambiguity of Language, and the Nature of Music-Theoretical Knowledge’

Birmingham Conservatoire, in association with the Institute of Musical Research, invites proposals for individual 20-minute papers (to be followed by 10 minutes of discussion) for inclusion in this two-day conference. Papers may either directly address Tinctoris’s own theoretical writings, musical compositions, biography, and their cultural, historical and intellectual contexts, or deal with broader approaches to music theory, its status and function in the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance. We are also interested in proposals relating to technologies of presentation for modern readers, and relationships between medieval music theory and other aspects of musical analysis and criticism.

Proposals should consist of a title, an abstract of up to 250 words and a biographical note of no more than 150 words; they should be sent to ronald.woodley@bcu.ac.uk by Thursday 1 May 2014.

It is anticipated that delegate fees will be waived for speakers, though it is unlikely that other travel and accommodation costs can be supported.

This conference marks the culmination of the first phase of the research project ‘The Complete Theoretical Works of Johannes Tinctoris: A New Digital Edition’ (2011–14), which has been generously funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and hosted by Birmingham Conservatoire, Birmingham City University. The edition, as well as further information about the project, is ongoing at:

www.earlymusictheory.org/Tinctoris

Information regarding booking for delegates will be circulated in May–June 2014.

Project Team and Programme Committee:
Professor Ronald Woodley: Principal Investigator
Dr Jeffrey J. Dean: Senior Researcher
David Lewis: Researcher
Christian Goursaud: PhD Student