Some #FragmentFriday reading if you haven’t seen this yet: From authors Anna de Bakker and Jennifer Bain and the Digital Analysis of Chant Transmission (DACT) Project:

https://theconversation.com/from-scribe-to-choir-to-being-repurposed-over-generations-medieval-christian-chant-book-fragments-reveal-stories-164035

The Spanish antiphoner usually housed at Western University (London, Ontario, Canada) as ‘ms M2150’ has ventured forth once again! Now starring in the exhibition ‘Hidden Stories: Books along the Silk Roads’, at the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto until February 27, 2022, this 16th-century source is described on the exhibition website’s digital section as a mode of “spiritual travel.” As one of twenty-one books representing various religious and secular contexts across medieval Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, our already well-travelled (and rather weather-beaten) old friend seems to be enjoying the high-life in the big city. Visitors to the museum, or to the digital version of the exhibit, can find a brief description, several representative images, and a 2-minute audio recording, all helping to renew a place for it in our historical imaginations of a vibrant and colourful medieval world.

Now available on YouTube: "Analysing the Music of Hildegard of Bingen" (Jennifer Bain), presented as part of "Software Tools in Chant Analysis Virtual Workshop" hosted by the University of Bristol on June 3, 2021.

Now available on YouTube: "Analysing Cantus: Tools for Discovery and Research" (Debra Lacoste & Jan Koláček), presented as part of "Software Tools in Chant Analysis Virtual Workshop" hosted by the University of Bristol on June 3, 2021. This video outlines both basic and advanced search tips on the Cantus Database, as well as demonstrates analytical tools available on Cantus Index that reveal groupings of medieval liturgical manuscripts based on their inclusion of identical or similar chants for particular saints and other liturgical occasions throughout the year.

June 14, 2021 - Debra Lacoste will present with Kate Steiner (Conrad Grebel University College at the University of Waterloo): ‘Turning the Page’ to a Positive: Digitization of Fragments as a Pedagogical Tool. 

Class seminars and student indexing projects involving medieval chant manuscripts and fragments are valuable "hands-on" learning experiences. Debra Lacoste will introduce the database and highlight the inventories prepared by University of Waterloo undergraduate students, and Kate Steiner will reflect on the classroom and individual experiences during the process of working with digitized chant fragments.

From May 28, 2021: Digital Analysis of Chant Transmission (DACT) and a Case Study of Two Fragments from the Riesencodex (presented by Jennifer Bain and Debra Lacoste). Watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8imxUS_gxE

June 3, 2021 -- We participated in "Software Tools in Chant Analysis - Virtual Workshop" online via Zoom from the University of Bristol. Debra Lacoste and Jan Koláček created a video presentation entitled “Analysing Cantus: Tools for Discovery and Research," and participated in the online questions and discussion.

The International Congress on Medieval Studies was online through Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan this year. We presented our Panel Discussion: “Fragments and the Digital Analysis of Chant Transmission" with participants Jennifer Bain (Dalhousie University), Alison Altstatt (University of Northern Iowa), and Debra Lacoste (University of Waterloo), Chair: Michael Norton. Debra described the process of converting the "Gottschalk Antiphoner" from a single inventory into separate fragments in order to better represent the present physical condition of this source. Future display will include individual fragment leaves and a reconstructed manuscript view.

Click here to see a short description and some photos from the "Digital Humanities in Early Music Research I series - Session I" organized in Prague by Hana Vlhová-Wörner with coordinator Jana Franková, sponsored by the Masaryk Institute.

A review of the session has been written by participant Haig Utidjian and published in the newest issue of the journal Hudební věda.

Fully-proofread inventories of 1) a late-15th-century antiphonal copied for a community of women in the Low Countries, Wellington (New Zealand), The Alexander Turnbull Library - Rare Books, MSR-03, indexed by Gillian Lander (U of Auckland) under the supervision of Dr. Fiona McAlpine; and 2) a fragment from a gradual now in the Humanities and Social Sciences Library at McGill University in Montréal, indexed by participants of the "Digital Humanities in Early Music Research" seminar held in Prague, sponsored by the Masaryk Institute and Archives of the CAS, organized by Hana Vlhová-Wörner (just days before physical-distancing restrictions were put in place around the world).