Project description DEENESFRITPL Understanding how early singers read and performed music Music writing was invented more than 1 000 years ago in Western Europe. However, little is known about how scripts were shaped and exchanged within networks of singer-scribes. The ERC-funded SCRIBEMUS project will enhance the results of established methodologies with computational musicology (machine learning) to study the first spreading of musical notation in Latin Europe. This is one of the most debated topics in historical musicology since the 19th century. Bringing together an international team, the project will carry out the first large-scale and fully interdisciplinary analysis of hundreds of surviving musical sources between 900 and 1100 CE. SCRIBEMUS will use special software to explore the scribes' intellectual approaches that guided their graphic representation of sound. Show the project objective Hide the project objective Objective 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 c. 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. 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 palimpsests manuscripts using multi-spectral imaging and digital processing to reveal a corpus of so-far 'hidden' melodies. 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 software NeumSyntax. We will combine innovatively computational musicology and machine learning for the study of early musical notation with vocal performance practice through a collaboration with the music ensemble Dialogos. In three intersecting work packages, the project will cross the disciplinary boundaries between music, Latin palaeography, linguistics, the study of past musical cultures, and computational science. SCRIBEMUS will fundamentally advance our understanding of how early singers developed sophisticated ways to visualise, read, and perform musical sound, changing the course of music history to this day. Fields of science natural sciencescomputer and information sciencescomputational science Programme(s) HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme Topic(s) ERC-2021-STG - ERC STARTING GRANTS Call for proposal ERC-2021-STG See other projects for this call Funding Scheme HORIZON-AG - HORIZON Action Grant Budget-Based Coordinator UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI PAVIA Net EU contribution € 1 464 672,00 Address Strada nuova 65 27100 Pavia Italy See on map Region Nord-Ovest Lombardia Pavia Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Participation in EU R&I programmes Opens in new window HORIZON collaboration network Opens in new window Other funding € 0,00 Participants (1) Sort alphabetically Sort by Net EU contribution Expand all Collapse all UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL United Kingdom Net EU contribution € 33 121,00 Address Beacon house queens road BS8 1QU Bristol See on map Region South West (England) Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Bristol/Bath area Bristol, City of Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Participation in EU R&I programmes Opens in new window HORIZON collaboration network Opens in new window Other funding € 0,00
