Universität Wien

160074 VO English Music in the Fifteenth Century, from Old Hall to Eton Choirbook (2025W)

4.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 16 - Musikwissenschaft und Sprachwissenschaft
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Details

Language: English

Examination dates

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

Lectures will be held in English; discussion and assessment will be in English or German, as students prefer.

1. Friday 03.10.2025 11:30 - 13:45
The Christian calendar and liturgy

2. Friday 17.10.2025 11:30 - 13:45
Political developments in England 1: The Hundred Years’ War; Institutions in which music was cultivated
Reading: Harrison 1959, 1–45, 156–219.

3. Friday 07.11.2025 11:30 - 13:45
French style v. English style (isorhythm and contenance angloise); Musical Sources (Old Hall, Fountains Fragments)
Reading: Harrison 1959, 220–294; Bukofzer 1950, 34–85, 86–112 (optional).

4. Friday 28.11.2025 11:30 - 13:45
Dunstable and Power; the Caput Mass and the Missa veterem hominem
Reading: Bukofzer 1950, 217–256; Colton 2017, 85–115; James Cook, “The life and afterlife of the Caput mass,” in Cook et al. 2024, 163–175 (optional; copy to be sent as PDFs); Andrew Wathey, “Dunstable, Power, and the mid-fifteenth century,” in Cook et al. 2024, 251–291 (optional; copy to be sent as PDFs)

5. Friday 05.12.2025 11:30 - 13:45
Votive antiphons and Magnificats; musical education
Reading: Harrison 1959, 295–307; Boynton 2008; Yardley 2008

6. Friday 12.12.2025 11:30 - 13:45
Responds, Carols, Benedicamus and other musical forms
Reading: Harrison 1959, 353–424; Fallows 2018, 1–18

7. Friday 19.12.2025 11:30 - 13:45
Political developments in England 2: The Wars of the Roses; the notation of fifteenth-century music
Reading: Apel 1954, 85–195.

8. Friday 09.01.2026 11:30 - 13:45
Continental responses to English music: Dufay, Binchois, Okeghem, Obrecht
Reading: Bukofzer 1950, 256–310; Colton 2017, 133–148.

9. Friday 16.01.2026 11:30 - 13:45
The Eton Choirbook
Reading: Harrison 1959, 307–329; Williamson 1997.

10. Friday 23.01.2026 11:30 - 13:45
Instrumental music and secular song
Reading: Polk 2009, Fallows 2015; Rastell and Taylor 2023, 315–361 (optional)

  • Friday 03.10. 11:30 - 13:45 Hörsaal 1 Musikwissenschaft UniCampus Hof 9, 3G-EG-09
  • Friday 17.10. 11:30 - 13:45 Hörsaal 1 Musikwissenschaft UniCampus Hof 9, 3G-EG-09
  • Friday 07.11. 11:30 - 13:45 Hörsaal 1 Musikwissenschaft UniCampus Hof 9, 3G-EG-09
  • Friday 28.11. 11:30 - 13:45 Hörsaal 1 Musikwissenschaft UniCampus Hof 9, 3G-EG-09
  • Friday 05.12. 11:30 - 13:45 Hörsaal 1 Musikwissenschaft UniCampus Hof 9, 3G-EG-09
  • Friday 12.12. 11:30 - 13:45 Hörsaal 1 Musikwissenschaft UniCampus Hof 9, 3G-EG-09
  • Friday 19.12. 11:30 - 13:45 Hörsaal 1 Musikwissenschaft UniCampus Hof 9, 3G-EG-09
  • Friday 09.01. 11:30 - 13:45 Hörsaal 1 Musikwissenschaft UniCampus Hof 9, 3G-EG-09
  • Friday 16.01. 11:30 - 13:45 Hörsaal 1 Musikwissenschaft UniCampus Hof 9, 3G-EG-09
  • Friday 23.01. 11:30 - 13:45 Hörsaal 1 Musikwissenschaft UniCampus Hof 9, 3G-EG-09

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

The fifteenth-century poet Martin le Franc and the theorist Johannes Tinctoris celebrated English composers, such as John Dunstaple and Leonel Power, as the originators of a new style of composition that was eagerly adopted by continental musicians, including Guillaume Dufay and Gilles Binchois. In reality the relationship was not entirely one-way, since fourteenth-century English composers had also responded to important technical developments in French music, such as isorhythm. The traces of give-and-take in the music of fifteenth-century English and French singer-composers reflect the artistic opportunities opened up by this period of intense political conflict and exchange.

This lecture series (VO) will examine the internal development of musical style, taste and technique in England, and its adoption and transformation on the continent, as reflected in the surviving manuscripts, including the Old Hall Manuscript, the Trent Codices, Brussels 5557 and the Eton Choirbook.

Students will become familiar with the music of the major English composers of the fifteenth century, as well as that of continental composers who adopted and adapted English techniques and taste. They will also gain tools to analyse this music, and to relate it to its historical context.

Students will also gain a knowledge of fifteenth-century notation and of the sources in which this music is transmitted.

Assessment and permitted materials

Each week the students will be required to listen to five pieces, which they must be able to identify by ear in the examination. Links to Spotify, Youtube and other online resources will be supplied.

Each week the students will also be given a set reading. The students' understanding of the content of the set readings will also be tested in the examination.

The final exam is a written exam, consisting of questions on the set readings and the set pieces.

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

- Ability to answer questions on set readings accurately

Examination topics

The exam assesses students' ability to answer questions on the reading material for each week.

Language: lectures will be held in English; discussion and assessment will be in English or German, as students prefer.

Reading list

Manfred Bukofzer, Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Music (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1950)
https://archive.org/details/studiesinmedieva0000manf

Willi Apel, The Notation of Polyphonic Music, 900–1600 (Cambridge, Mass.: The Medieval Academy of America, 1954)
https://archive.org/details/notationofpolyph1953apel/mode/2up

Frank Ll. Harrison, Music in Medieval Britain (New York: Praeger, 1959)
https://archive.org/details/musicinmedievalb00harr/page/n5/mode/2up

Magnus Williamson, “The Early Tudor Court, the Provinces and the Eton Choirbook.” Early Music 25 (1997): 229–243. https://academic.oup.com/em/article-abstract/XXV/2/229/414274 (available for download to University of Vienna accounts)

Susan Boynton, “Boy singers in medieval monasteries and cathedrals,” in Susan Boynton and Eric Rice (ed.), Young Choristers, 650–1700 (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2008): 37–48.
https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/young-choristers-6501700/boy-singers-in-medieval-monasteries-and-cathedrals/6C619827A313B2DD7EBC1D7016484F32 (available for download to University of Vienna accounts)

Anne Bagnall Yardley, “The musical education of young girls in medieval English nunneries,” in Susan Boynton and Eric Rice (ed.), Young Choristers, 650–1700 (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2008): 49–67 https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/young-choristers-6501700/musical-education-of-young-girls-in-medieval-english-nunneries/58B54AFF167C73F03C520FAD9691E6FC (available for download to University of Vienna accounts)

David Fallows, “The most popular songs of the fifteenth century,” in Anna Maria Busse Berger and Jesse Rodin (ed.), The Cambridge History of Fifteenth-Century Music (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015): 787–801. https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/cambridge-history-of-fifteenthcentury-music/most-popular-songs-of-the-fifteenth-century/84E958554FA48594F02F33A6122E79A8 (available for download to University of Vienna accounts)

Keith Polk, “English Instrumental Music in the Fifteenth Century.” In Jennifer M. Bloxam, Gioia Filocamo and Leofranc Holford- Strevens (ed.), Uno Gentile et Subtile Ingenio (Turnhout: Brepols, 2009): 659–667 (PDF files to be supplied)

Lisa Colton, Angel Song: Medieval English Music in History (London: Routledge, 2017)
https://www-taylorfrancis-com.uaccess.univie.ac.at/books/mono/10.4324/9781315567068/angel-song-medieval-english-music-history-lisa-colton?context=ubx&refId=d114f324-c538-466a-b1cf-942e5ec4a0ed (available for download to University of Vienna accounts)

David Fallows, Henry V and the Earliest English Carols: 1413–1440 (London: Routledge, 2018)
https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9781315610900/henry-earliest-english-carols-1413%E2%80%931440-david-fallows?refId=d016fb53-51ff-4925-810c-a8d6b09563d4&context=ubx (available for download to University of Vienna accounts)

Richard Rastall and Andrew Taylor, Minstrels and Minstrelsy in Late Medieval England (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2023)
https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/minstrels-and-minstrelsy-in-late-medieval-england/A3A722FADDFB59D7F22E7806D6831021 (available for download to University of Vienna accounts)

James Cook, Grantley McDonald and Adam Whittaker (ed.). Manuscripts, Materiality, and Mobility: Essays on Late Medieval Music in Memory of Peter Wright (Lucca: Libreria Musicale Italiana, 2024) (PDF files to be supplied)

Association in the course directory

BA: HIS-V1, FRE
MA: MUS, H.1, H.2, E.HIA, H.HIA, S.HIA
EC: EMG2

Last modified: We 15.10.2025 14:26